


A kid with the name of the old city

by Styx13



Series: Alex Lambraques [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Action/Adventure, Ancient Greece, Demigods, F/M, Love, Magic, Prophecy, Romance, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:07:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 29,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25416646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Styx13/pseuds/Styx13
Summary: Only a month remained until the awakening of the goddess Gaia and her bloodthirsty children, and then the whole familiar world will be destroyed in a new war of gods and giants. Only seven heroes from the prophecy can stop the goddess ... So, Alex, what are you doing here? Oh yeah, exactly ... Your our healer with butterfield experience.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Leo Valdez & Original Character(s)
Series: Alex Lambraques [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1840378
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

Until we got to New Rome, I thought I was prepared for anything.

Annabeth paced the deck of our flying warship, the Argo II, checking and double-checking the ballistae to make sure they were locked down. I confirmed that the white “We come in peace” flag was flying from the mast. She reviewed the plan with us—and the backup plan, and the backup plan for the backup plan. And I could swear - she had a backup plan for the backup plan for the backup plan. Most important, Annabeth pulled aside our war-crazed chaperone, Coach Gleeson Hedge, and encouraged him to take the morning off in his cabin and watch reruns of mixed martial arts championships. The last thing we needed as we flew a magical Greek trireme into a potentially hostile Roman camp was a middle-aged satyr in gym clothes waving a club and yelling “Die!”

Everything seemed to be in order. The warship descended through the clouds, but Annabeth couldn’t stop second walking back and forth. 

Well, Argo II definitely did not look friendly. Two hundred feet long, with a bronze-plated hull, mounted repeating crossbows fore and aft, a flaming metal dragon for a figurehead, and two rotating ballistae amidships that could fire explosive bolts powerful enough to blast through concrete…huh, it wasn’t the most appropriate ride for a meet-and-greet with the neighbors.

Leo and I send one of his special inventions—a holographic scroll, just like I suggested couple of months ago, —to alert our friends inside the camp. Hopefully the message had gotten through. Leo had wanted to paint a giant message on the bottom of the hull—WASSUP? with a smiley face—but we weren't sure the Romans had a sense of humor, so we had to deny his suggestion.

The clouds broke around our hull, revealing the gold-and-green carpet of the Oakland Hills below us. Annabeth gripped one of the bronze shields that lined the starboard rail. Her crewmates - us - took their places. On the stern quarterdeck, Leo rushed around like a madman, checking his gauges and wrestling levers. Most helmsmen would’ve been satisfied with a pilot’s wheel or a tiller. Leo had also installed a keyboard, monitor, aviation controls from a Learjet, a dubstep soundboard, and motion-control sensors from a Nintendo Wii. He could turn the ship by pulling on the throttle, fire weapons by sampling an album, or raise sails by shaking his Wii controllers really fast. Even by demigod standards, Leo was seriously ADHD.

I sat on the mast, waving my legs back and forth, looking for any obstacles in the distance. Which have not yet been. For today's meeting with the Romans I looked too casual. Dark shorts, the orange camp t-shirt, a plaid red shirt that I tied on my hips and my hair clip that transformed into a bow and a quiver. I kept fiddling with my camp necklace, which Aeolus returned me this winter after I lost it on my way to the underworld, when I died. And I was terrified with heights. Why I sat the mast? Well, obviously we were playing hide and seek with Leo and I asked Jason to hide me somewhere. Well, he decided to mock me. And Annabeth decided to take advantage of my position.

Piper paced back and forth between the mainmast and the ballistae, practicing her lines. “Lower your weapons,” she murmured. “We just want to talk.” Her charmspeak was so powerful, the words flowed over to me, almost causing me to drop my magical hair clip and have a nice long chat. For a child of Aphrodite, Piper tried hard to play down her beauty. Today she was dressed in tattered jeans, worn-out sneakers, and a white tank top with pink Hello Kitty designs. Her choppy brown hair was braided down the right side with an eagle’s feather.

Then here was my cousin, Jason. He stood at the bow on the raised crossbow platform, where the Romans could easily spot him. His knuckles were white on the hilt of his golden sword. Otherwise he looked calm for a guy who was making himself a target. Over his jeans and orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, he’d donned a toga and a purple cloak—symbols of his old rank as praetor. With his wind-ruffled blond hair and his icy blue eyes, he looked ruggedly handsome and in control—just like a son of Jupiter should. He’d grown up at Camp Jupiter, so hopefully his familiar face would make the Romans hesitant to blow the ship out of the sky.

In the valley below, horns sounded. The Romans had spotted us. I thought I knew what to expect. Jason had described Camp Jupiter in great detail. Still, I had trouble believing my eyes. Ringed by the Oakland Hills, the valley was at least twice the size of Camp Half-Blood. A small river snaked around one side and curled toward the center like a capital letter G, emptying into a sparkling blue lake. Directly below the ship, nestled at the edge of the lake, the city of New Rome gleamed in the sunlight. I recognized landmarks Jason had told us about—the hippodrome, the coliseum, the temples and parks, the neighborhood of Seven Hills with its winding streets, colorful villas, and flowering gardens. I saw evidence of the Romans’ recent battle with an army of monsters. The dome was cracked open on a building I guessed was the Senate House. The forum’s broad plaza was pitted with craters. Some fountains and statues were in ruins. Dozens of kids in togas were streaming out of the Senate House to get a better view of the Argo II. More Romans emerged from the shops and cafés, gawking and pointing as the ship descended.

About half a mile to the west, where the horns were blowing, a Roman fort stood on a hill. A column of demigods emerged from the gates, their armor and spears glinting as they hurried toward the city. In the midst of their ranks was an actual war elephant. A freaking. Elephant. I figured out Annabeth probably wanted to land the Argo II before those troops arrived, but the ground was still several hundred feet below. 

"Guys!" I said, going down to the deck on the tightrope. "The view is just-..." Then something behind me went BOOM! The explosion almost knocked me overboard. Considering the fact that I am terrified of heights and had a bad panic attack at December when I'm almost fell from a bridge... I squeaked and found myself eye to eye with an angry statue.

“Unacceptable!” he shrieked. Apparently he had exploded into existence, right here on the deck. Sulfurous yellow smoke rolled off his shoulders. Cinders popped around his curly hair. From the waist down, he was nothing but a square marble pedestal. From the waist up, he was a muscular human figure in a carved toga. “I will not have weapons inside the Pomerian Line!” he announced in a fussy teacher voice. “I certainly will not have Greeks!”

Jason shot me and Annabeth a look that said, I’ve got this. “Terminus,” he said. “It’s me. Jason Grace.”

“Oh, I remember you, Jason!” Terminus grumbled. “I thought you had better sense than to consort with the enemies of Rome!”

“But they’re not enemies—”

“That’s right,” Piper jumped in. “We just want to talk. If we could—”

“Ha!” snapped the statue. “Don’t try that charmspeak on me, young lady. And put down that dagger before I slap it out of your hands!”

Piper glanced at her bronze dagger, which she’d apparently forgotten she was holding. “Um…okay. But how would you slap it? You don’t have any arms.”

“Impertinence!” There was a sharp POP and a flash of yellow. Piper yelped and dropped the dagger, which was now smoking and sparking.

"Oh shit, how-...?" Terminus cutted me off:

“Lucky for you I’ve just been through a battle,” Terminus announced. “If I were at full strength, I would’ve blasted this flying monstrosity out of the sky already!”

“Hold up.” Leo stepped forward, wagging his Wii controller. “Did you just call my ship a monstrosity? I know you didn’t do that.”

I think the idea that Leo might attack the statue with his gaming device was enough to snap Annabeth out of her shock.; “Let’s all calm down.” She raised her hands to show she had no weapons. “I take it you’re Terminus, the god of boundaries. Jason told me you protect the city of New Rome, right? I’m Annabeth Chase, daughter of—”

“Oh, I know who you are!” The statue glared at her with its blank white eyes. “A child of Athena, Minerva’s Greek form. Scandalous! You Greeks have no sense of decency. We Romans know the proper place for that goddess.”

“What exactly do you mean, that goddess? And what’s so scandalous about—”

“Right!” Jason interrupted. “Anyway, Terminus, we’re here on a mission of peace. We’d love permission to land so we can—”

“Impossible!” the god squeaked. “Lay down your weapons and surrender! Leave my city immediately!”

“Which is it?” Leo asked. “Surrender, or leave?”

“Both!” Terminus said. “Surrender, then leave. I am slapping your face for asking such a stupid question, you ridiculous boy! Do you feel that?”

“Wow.” Leo studied Terminus with professional interest. “You’re wound up pretty tight. You got any gears in there that need loosening? I could take a look.” He exchanged the Wii controller for a screwdriver from his magic tool belt and tapped the statue’s pedestal.

"Leo!" I smacked the back of his head, looking at him reproachfully. That made Leo drop his screwdriver, huffing.

“Weapons are not allowed on Roman soil inside the Pomerian Line.” Terminus insisted.

“The what?” Piper asked.

“City limits,” Jason translated.

“And this entire ship is a weapon!” Terminus said. “Even her hair clip is weapon!" He looked at me." You cannot land!” Down in the valley, the legion reinforcements were halfway to the city. The crowd in the forum was over a hundred strong now. 

“Leo, stop the ship,” Annabeth ordered.

“What?” me and Leo asked together.

“You heard me. Keep us right where we are.” Leo pulled out his controller and yanked it upward. All ninety oars froze in place. The ship stopped sinking. “Terminus,” Annabeth said, “There’s no rule against hovering over New Rome, is there?”

The statue frowned. “Well, no…”

“We can keep the ship aloft,” Annabeth said. “We’ll use a rope ladder to reach the forum. That way, the ship won’t be on Roman soil. Not technically.”

The statue seemed to ponder this. I wondered if he was now scratching his chin with imaginary hands. Interesting theory.

“I like technicalities,” he admitted. “Still…”

“All our weapons will stay aboard the ship,” Annabeth promised. “I assume the Romans—even those reinforcements marching toward us—will also have to honor your rules inside the Pomerian Line if you tell them to?”

“Of course!” Terminus said. “Do I look like I tolerate rule breakers?”

“Uh, Annabeth…” Leo said. “You sure this is a good idea?” She closed her fists and looked a little dazed, throwing glances over the board. She was searching for Percy.

“I think it’ll be fine,” I said with a smile. Terminus was a statue, my dad was Apollo, maybe we could get along. “No one will be armed and we can talk in peace. Terminus will make sure each side obeys the rules.” I shrugged and looked at the marble statue. “Do we have an agreement?”

Terminus sniffed. “I suppose. For now. You may climb down your ladder to New Rome, daughter of..?"

"Oh, Apollo." I said, slightly moving my shoulders.

Terminus looked pleased. Maybe the theory about my father was right. "And please," he said, and I looked back at him. "Do not to destroy my town.”

A sea of hastily assembled demigods parted for us as we walked through the forum. Some looked tense, some nervous. Some were bandaged from their recent battle with the giants, but no one was armed. No one attacked. Entire families had gathered to see the newcomers. I saw couples with babies, toddlers clinging to their parents’ legs, even some elderly folks in a combination of Roman robes and modern clothes. Were all of them demigods...? At Camp Half-Blood, most demigods were teens. If they survived long enough to graduate from high school, they either stayed on as counselors or left to start lives as best they could in the mortal world. Here, it was an entire multigenerational community, and I liked that in some way.

At the far end of the crowd, I spotted Tyson and Percy’s hellhound, Mrs. O’Leary—who had been the first scouting party from Camp Half-Blood to reach Camp Jupiter. They looked to be in good spirits. I smiled and waved. After a moment Tyson waved back and grinned.

In front of us, the demigods made way for a girl in full Roman armor and a purple cape. Dark hair tumbled across her shoulders. Her eyes were as black as obsidian. Reyna. Jason had described her well. Even without that, I think I would have singled her out as the leader. Medals decorated her armor. She carried herself with such confidence the other demigods backed away and averted their gaze. Reyna and Annabeth considered each other. we split on either side of Annabeth. The Romans murmured Jason’s name, staring at him in awe. Then someone else appeared from the crowd.

Percy smiled.

The praetor Reyna straightened. With apparent reluctance, she turned toward Jason. “Jason Grace, my former colleague…” She spoke the word colleague like it was a dangerous thing. “I welcome you home. And these, your friends—” Annabeth and Percy surged forward at the same time, causing my happy smile turn to a laugh. Percy threw his arms around Annabeth and hey kissed, and them she grabbed his wrist and flipped him over her shoulder. He slammed into the stone pavement. Romans cried out. Some surged forward, but Reyna shouted, “Hold! Stand down!” Annabeth put her knee on Percy’s chest. She pushed her forearm against his throat. She said something, and Percy laughed. I could hear it if I wanted too - because of my incredible hearing, that was one of my talents that I got from my father - but I decided to give these two a moment to themselves. And then Annabeth rose and helped him to his feet.

Jason cleared his throat, while I stopped laughing. “So, yeah.… It’s good to be back.” He introduced Reyna to Piper, who looked a little miffed that she hadn’t gotten to say the lines she’d been practicing, to Leo, who grinned and flashed a peace sign, and then to me - I simply smiled and waved, at her. Jason told me that I better not use my family teasing on the Romans untill we get to know each other. “And this is Annabeth,” Jason said. “Uh, normally she doesn’t judo-flip people.”

Reyna’s eyes sparkled. “You sure you’re not a Roman, Annabeth? Or an Amazon?”

Annabeth didn’t know if that was a compliment, but she held out her hand. “I only attack my boyfriend like that,” she promised. “Pleased to meet you.”

Reyna clasped her hand firmly. “It seems we have a lot to discuss. Centurions!”

A few of the Roman campers hustled forward—apparently the senior officers. Two kids appeared at Percy’s side; a burly Asian guy with the buzz cut was about fifteen - he was cute in a sort of oversized-cuddly-panda-bear way, and a girl that was younger, maybe thirteen, with amber eyes and chocolate skin and long curly hair - her cavalry helmet was tucked under her arm. I could tell from their body language that they felt close to Percy. They stood next to him protectively, like they’d already shared many adventures. 

Meanwhile, Reyna was giving orders to her officers. “…tell the legion to stand down. Dakota, alert the spirits in the kitchen. Tell them to prepare a welcome feast. And, Octavian—”

“You’re letting these intruders into the camp?” A tall guy with stringy blond hair elbowed his way forward. “Reyna, the security risks—”

“We’re not taking them to the camp, Octavian.” Reyna flashed him a stern look. “We’ll eat here, in the forum.”

“Oh, much better,” Octavian grumbled. He seemed to be the only one who didn’t defer to Reyna as his superior, despite the fact that he was scrawny and pale and for some reason had three teddy bears hanging from his belt. Like, I'm not the one to judge; ask Will, my half-brother, he'll tell you - I sleep with about 10 stuffed animals. “You want us to relax in the shadow of their warship.”

“These are our guests.” Reyna clipped off every word. “We will welcome them, and we will talk to them. As augur, you should burn an offering to thank the gods for bringing Jason back to us safely.”

“Good idea,” Percy put in. “Go burn your bears, Octavian.” wait-wait-wait. BuRn bear's?!

Reyna looked like she was trying not to smile. “You have my orders. Go.” The officers dispersed. Octavian shot Percy a look of absolute loathing. Then he gave Annabeth a suspicious once-over and stalked away.

Percy slipped his hand into Annabeth’s. “Don’t worry about Octavian,” he said. “Most of the Romans are good people—like Frank and Hazel here, and Reyna. We’ll be fine.”

“We’ll be fine,” she repeated.

“Excellent,” Reyna said. She turned to Jason, and Annabeth thought there was a hungry sort of gleam in her eyes. “Let’s talk, and we can have a proper reunion.”

I was happy that I didn't ate today and had an appetite, because the Romans knew how to eat. Sets of couches and low tables were carted into the forum until it resembled a furniture showroom. Romans lounged in groups of ten or twenty, talking and laughing while wind spirits—aurae—swirled overhead, bringing an endless assortment of pizzas, sandwiches, chips, cold drinks, and fresh-baked cookies. Drifting through the crowd were purple ghosts—Lares—in togas and legionnaire armor. Around the edges of the feast, fauns trotted from table to table, panhandling for food and spare change. In the nearby fields, the war elephant frolicked with Mrs. O’Leary, and children played tag around the statues of Terminus that lined the city limits.

Reyna and a few of her officers, including Octavian, freshly back from burning a teddy bear for the gods - for what I clamed him the Teddy-Hitler, causing Leo to choke on his drink and laugh - sat with us. Percy joined us with his two new friends, Frank and Hazel. 

Reyna called a toast to friendship. 

"Wait," I said after couple of minutes, looking at Octavian. "You're an augur, right?"

"Yes."

"So your a child of Apollo." I concluded.

"I'm his legacy." The guy said.

"Wait what...?" I blinked, not exactly understanding. "Uh, I mean, in what generation?" 

"Al," Jason elbowed me. "We talked about this."

"What?!" I shrugged. "I didn't even used the family teasing, although he's my-... Oh god's I can be considered as yours grandmother or something!" I laughed.

After introductions all around, the Romans and us began exchanging stories. Jason explained how he’d arrived at Camp Half-Blood without his memory, and how he’d gone on a quest with Piper, Leo and me to rescue the goddess Hera from imprisonment at the Wolf House in northern California.

“Impossible!” Octavian broke in. “That’s our most sacred place. If the giants had imprisoned a goddess there—”

“They would’ve destroyed her,” Piper said. “And blamed it on the Greeks, and started a war between the camps. Now, be quiet and let Jason finish.” Octavian opened his mouth, but no sound came out. I really loved Piper’s charmspeak. But not when she told me to give her my sweet's.

“So,” Jason continued, “That’s how we found out about the earth goddess Gaea. She’s still half asleep, but she’s the one freeing the monsters from Tartarus and raising the giants. Porphyrion, the big leader dude we fought at the Wolf House: he said he was retreating to the ancient lands—Greece itself. He plans on awakening Gaea and destroying the gods by…what did he call it?" 

"Pulling up their roots.” I quoted.

Percy nodded thoughtfully. “Gaea’s been busy over here, too. We had our own encounter with Queen Dirt Face.” Percy recounted his side of the story. He talked about waking up at the Wolf House with no memories except for one name—Annabeth. He told us how he’d traveled to Alaska with Frank and Hazel—how they’d defeated the giant Alcyoneus, freed the death god Thanatos - I had to interrupt his story with the minor one that happened to me at Mountain Diablo when Thanatos had to save me - and returned with the lost golden eagle standard of the Roman camp to repel an attack by the giants’ army. When Percy had finished, Jason whistled appreciatively. “No wonder they made you praetor.”

Octavian snorted. “Which means we now have three praetors! The rules clearly state we can only have two!”

“On the bright side,” Percy said, “Both Jason and I outrank you, Octavian. So we can both tell you to shut up.”

Octavian turned as purple as a Roman T-shirt. Jason gave Percy a fist bump and I snored. Even Reyna managed a smile. “We’ll have to figure out the extra praetor problem later,” she said. “Right now we have more serious issues to deal with.”

“I’ll step aside for Jason,” Percy said easily. “It’s no biggie.”

“No biggie?” Octavian choked. “The praetorship of Rome is no biggie?”

Percy ignored him and turned to Jason, who was sitting next to me. “So your Thalia's brother..." he narrowed his eyes. "You guys look nothing alike... I would rather think that you're Ria's brother."

“Yeah, I know,” Jason said with a slight smile on his lips. “Anyway, thanks for helping my camp while I was gone. You did an awesome job.”

“Back at you,” Percy said.

Annabeth kicked his shin; “We should talk about the Great Prophecy. It sounds like the Romans are aware of it too?”

Reyna nodded. “We call it the Prophecy of Seven. Octavian, you have it committed to memory?”

“Of course,” he said. “But, Reyna—”

“Recite it, please. In English, not Latin.”

Octavian sighed. “Seven half-bloods shall answer the call. To storm or fire the world must fall—”

“An oath to keep with a final breath,” Annabeth continued. “And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.”

Everyone stared at her—except for Leo, who had constructed a pinwheel out of aluminum foil taco wrappers and was sticking it into passing wind spirits. The big kid, Frank, sat forward, staring at her in fascination, as if she’d grown a third eye. “Is it true you’re a child of Min—I mean, Athena?”

“Yes,” she said. “Why is that such a surprise?” I was interested in this too.

Octavian scoffed. “If you’re truly a child of the wisdom goddess—”

“Enough,” Reyna snapped. “Annabeth is what she says. She’s here in peace. Besides…” She gave Annabeth a look of grudging respect. “Percy has spoken highly of you.”

"I'm not sure if he should spoke of her in any other way." I whispered to Piper and Jason. "Especially after the-" I did some movements with my hands, that were similar to those Annabeth did to Percy.

“Uh, well, thanks,” Annabeth told Reyna. “At any rate, some of the prophecy is becoming clear. Foes bearing arms to the Doors of Death…that means Romans and Greeks. We have to combine forces to find those doors.” Hazel, the girl with the cavalry helmet and the long curly hair, picked up something next to her plate.

“My brother, Nico, went looking for the doors,” she said.

“Wait,” I said. “Nico di Angelo? He’s your brother?”

Hazel nodded as if this were obvious.

“Okay." Annabeth noded."You were saying?”

“He disappeared.” Hazel moistened her lips. “I’m afraid…I’m not sure, but I think something’s happened to him.”

"So that's why my Irida messages didn't got to him..." I mumbled.

“We’ll look for him,” Percy promised. “We have to find the Doors of Death anyway. Thanatos told us we’d find both answers in Rome—like, the original Rome. That’s on the way to Greece, right?" Percy took a bite of his burger. “Now that Death is free, monsters will disintegrate and return to Tartarus again like they used to. But as long as the Doors of Death are open, they’ll just keep coming back.”

Piper twisted the feather in her hair. “Like water leaking through a dam,” she suggested.

“Yeah.” Percy smiled. “We’ve got a dam hole.”

“What?” Piper asked.

“Nothing,” he said. “Inside joke. The point is we’ll have to find the doors and close them before we can head to Greece. It’s the only way we’ll stand a chance of defeating the giants and making sure they stay defeated.”

Reyna plucked an apple from a passing fruit tray. She turned it in her fingers, studying the dark red surface. “You propose an expedition to Greece in your warship. You do realize that the ancient lands—and the Mare Nostrum—are dangerous?”

“Mary who?” Leo asked.

“Mare Nostrum,” Jason explained. “Our Sea. It’s what the Ancient Romans called the Mediterranean.”

Reyna nodded. “The territory that was once the Roman Empire is not only the birthplace of the gods. It’s also the ancestral home of the monsters, Titans and giants…and worse things. As dangerous as travel is for demigods here in America, there it would be ten times worse.”

“You said Alaska would be bad,” Percy reminded her. “We survived that.”

Reyna shook her head. Her fingernails cut little crescents into the apple as she turned it. “Percy, traveling in the Mediterranean is a different level of danger altogether. It’s been off limits to Roman demigods for centuries. No hero in his right mind would go there.”

“Then we’re good!” Leo grinned over the top of his pinwheel. “Because we’re all crazy, right? Besides, the Argo II is a top-of-the-line warship. She’ll get us through.”

“We’ll have to hurry,” Jason added. “I don’t know exactly what the giants are planning, but Gaea is growing more conscious all the time. She’s invading dreams, appearing in weird places," I shuddered, remembering out quest this winter. "Summoning more and more powerful monsters. We have to stop the giants before they can wake her up fully.”

“Seven half-bloods must answer the call,” Annabeth said. “It needs to be a mix from both our camps. Jason, Piper, Leo, and me. That’s four.”

“And me,” Percy said. “Along with Hazel and Frank. That’s seven.”

"And you...?" Frank looked at me, like I was a piece of a puzzle and he couldn't figure out where go put me. 

"Oh, I'm just a healer with a battlefield experience." I smiled and Leo grinned.

“What?” Octavian shot to his feet. “We’re just supposed to accept that? Without a vote in the senate? Without a proper debate? Without—”

“Percy!” Tyson the Cyclops bounded toward them with Mrs. O’Leary at his heels. On the hellhound’s back sat the skinniest harpy I had ever seen—a sickly-looking girl with stringy red hair, a sackcloth dress, and red-feathered wings. I didn’t know where the harpy had come from, but her heart warmed to see Tyson in his tattered flannel and denim with the backward SPQR banner across his chest. I had some pretty bad experiences with Cyclopes last winter, but Tyson was a sweetheart. Tyson stopped by their couch and wrung his meaty hands. His big brown eye was full of concern. “Ella is scared,” he said.

“N-n-no more boats,” the harpy muttered to herself, picking furiously at her feathers. “Titanic, Lusitania, Pax…boats are not for harpies.”

Leo squinted. He looked at Hazel, who was seated next to him. “Did that chicken girl just compare my ship to the Titanic?”

“She’s not a chicken.” Hazel averted her eyes, as if Leo made her nervous. “Ella’s a harpy. She’s just a little…high-strung.”

"I'm apologizing for him," I said to Hazel. "He's like a little puppy. Cute almost all the time but sometimes starts to bark."

“Ella is pretty,” Tyson said. “And scared. We need to take her away, but she will not go on the ship.”

“No ships,” Ella repeated. She looked straight at Annabeth. “Bad luck. There she is. Wisdom’s daughter walks alone—”

“Ella!” Frank stood suddenly. “Maybe it’s not the best time—”

“The Mark of Athena burns through Rome,” Ella continued, cupping her hands over her ears and raising her voice. “Twins snuff out the angel’s breath, Who holds the key to endless death. Giants’ bane stands gold and pale, Won through pain from a woven jail.”

The effect was like someone dropping a flash grenade on the table. Everyone stared at the harpy. No one spoke. Around us, the sounds of the feast continued, but muted and distant, as if our little cluster of couches had slipped into a quieter dimension.

Percy was the first to recover. He stood and took Tyson’s arm.

“I know!” he said with feigned enthusiasm. “How about you take Ella to get some fresh air? You and Mrs. O’Leary—”

“Hold on.” Octavian gripped one of his teddy bears, strangling it with shaking hands. His eyes fixed on Ella. “What was that she said? It sounded like—”

“Ella reads a lot,” Frank blurted out. “We found her at a library.”

“Yes!” Hazel said. “Probably just something she read in a book.”

“Books,” Ella muttered helpfully. “Ella likes books.”

Now that she’d said her piece, the harpy seemed more relaxed. She sat cross-legged on Mrs. O’Leary’s back, preening her wings. Obviously, he and Frank and Hazel were hiding something. Just as obviously, Ella had recited a prophecy—a prophecy that concerned her. Percy’s expression said, Help.

“That was a prophecy,” Octavian insisted. “It sounded like a prophecy.”

No one answered. And suddenly Annabeth laugh. “Really, Octavian? Maybe harpies are different here, on the Roman side. Ours have just enough intelligence to clean cabins and cook lunches. Do yours usually foretell the future? Do you consult them for your auguries?” Her words had the intended effect. The Roman officers laughed nervously. Some sized up Ella, then looked at Octavian and snorted. The idea of a chicken lady issuing prophecies was apparently just as ridiculous to Romans as it was to Greeks.

“I, uh…” Octavian dropped his teddy bear. “No, but—”

“She’s just spouting lines from some book,” I shrugged, coming to help, “Like Hazel suggested. Besides, we already have a real, big, and scary prophecy to worry about.”

Annabeth turned to Tyson. “Percy’s right. Why don’t you take Ella and Mrs. O’Leary and shadow-travel somewhere for a while. Is Ella okay with that?”

“‘Large dogs are good,’” Ella said. “Old Yeller, 1957, screenplay by Fred Gipson and William Tunberg.” 

Percy smiled like the problem was solved. “Great!” he said. “We’ll Iris-message you guys when we’re done and catch up with you later.”

The Romans looked at Reyna, waiting for her ruling. I held my breath. Reyna had an excellent poker face. She studied Ella, but Annabeth couldn’t guess what she was thinking. “Fine,” the praetor said at last. “Go.”

“Yay!” Tyson went around the couches and gave everyone a big hug—even Octavian, who didn’t look happy about it. Then he climbed on Mrs. O’Leary’s back with Ella, and the hellhound bounded out of the forum. They dove straight into a shadow on the Senate House wall and disappeared.

“Well.” Reyna set down her uneaten apple. “Octavian is right about one thing. We must gain the senate’s approval before we let any of our legionnaires go on a quest—especially one as dangerous as you’re suggesting.”

“This whole thing smells of treachery,” Octavian grumbled. “That trireme is not a ship of peace!”

“Come aboard, man,” Leo offered. “I’ll give you a tour. You can steer the boat, and if you’re really good I’ll give you a little paper captain’s hat to wear.”

Octavian’s nostrils flared. “How dare you—”

“It’s a good idea,” Reyna said. “Octavian, go with him. See the ship. We’ll convene a senate meeting in one hour.”

“But…” Octavian stopped. Apparently he could tell from Reyna’s expression that further arguing would not be good for his health. “Fine.”

Leo got up. He turned to me, and smiled with his usual impish grin; "Hey, Sunshine, want to come with us?"

"Huh, no, thanks." I laughed nervously and lightly tugged his T-shirt goodbye. "I think I better stay."

“Ok. Wil be back soon,” he promised, messing my hair. My magic hair clip was at my cabin on Argo II, so my bangs always fell on my eyes. Like now. “This is gonna be epic.” Leo and Octavian headed for the rope ladder, and the wind spirits began clearing the plates.

"You don't like heights?" Hazel asked me. I looked at her and smiled, nodding.

"Yeah... How did you knew?" I asked.

"Oh, I just thought that you would like to spend time with your boyfriend if the ship wasn't in the air." Hazel said.

"Yeah, well, your right, but uh..." My cheeks turned red, as I started to wrap the sleeves of my shirt on my finger. "Leo's not my boyfriend..."

"Oh, really?" Hazel looked really surprised. "Sorry if I made you uncomfortable, he called you 'Sunshine', so I thought-..."

"They're both just slow-witted and oblivious ball's of love and affection for each other." Piper joked, looking at Hazel.

"Pipes...!" I squeaked quitely. "Why are you betraying me like that?!"

"All for love," smiled the daughter of Aphrodite.

“Speaking off... Uh, Reyna,” Jason said, “If you don’t mind, I’d like to show Piper around before the senate meeting. She’s never seen New Rome.” Reyna’s expression hardened and I wondered for a second how my dear cousin could be so dense. Was it possible he really didn’t understand how much Reyna liked him? 

“Of course,” Reyna said coldly.

Percy took Annabeth’s hand. “Yeah, me, too. I’d like to show Annabeth—”

“No,” Reyna snapped.

Percy knit his eyebrows. “Sorry?”

“I’d like a few words with Annabeth,” Reyna said. “Alone. If you don’t mind, my fellow praetor.” Her tone made it clear she wasn’t really asking permission. “Come, daughter of Athena.” Reyna rose from her couch. “Walk with me."

When they were gone, Jason took Piper by her hand and drugged her somewhere. Now only Percy, Hazel, Frank and I are left at the table. 

"Well," Jackson said, turning to me. "How is it, to find your cousin? Jason really seems as a good guy."

"Wait, Jason is your cousin?" Frank asked, looking at me surprised, and Hazel as well.

"Uh, yeah, I didn't mentioned it?" I looked at Percy, but he just shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, well, it probably wasn't as shocking as it was for Thalia, but I didn't left disappointed." I smirked. "I'd give 9/10."

"Why, not 10/10?" Percy asked, laughing.

"Because the package was late." I smirked, making Frank and Hazel grin.

"Well, what do you think of a little excursion?" Hazel asked after a while.

"Oh, I'd love that!" I jumped on my feet. "You guys have such a beautiful buildings here...!"

A shrill sound pierced the air as we walked on at of the streets. Guys just showed me some of the most beautiful buildings and interesting places around when light flashed in the corner of my eye. I turned in time to see an explosion blast a new crater in the forum. A burning couch tumbled through the air. Demigods scattered in panic.

"What?!" I yelled, rushing forward.

"It was Argo?!" Percy asked me while running near me. 

"I-I don't know..." I said. "Why would such a thing happen?! All the ballistas were locked, Annabeth checked them million times!" And as soon as I said it, Argo II launched a second volley. Its port ballista fired a massive spear wreathed in Greek fire, which sailed straight through the broken dome of the Senate House and exploded inside, lighting up the building like a jack-o’-lantern. If anyone had been in there...

"What's happening?!" Hazel asked, catching up with me and Percy.

"Have no idea!" I said. I knew that they could not believe me. They could catch me and... Do whatever doing with traitor's, but they ran after me, not questioning my honesty. Down in the forum, chaos was spreading. Crowds were pushing and shoving. Fistfights were breaking out. And if weapons had been allowed in the city, we would have already been dead. The Roman demigods in the forum had coalesced into an angry mob. Some threw plates, food, and rocks at the Argo II, which was pointless, as most of the stuff fell back into the crowd. Armed legionnaires were hurrying toward the forum. Two artillery crews had set up catapults just outside the Pomerian Line and were preparing to fire at the Argo II.

Me and Percy and his friends, Hazel and Frank, were standing in the middle of a fountain as Percy repelled the angry Romans with blasts of water, and I was hiding behind his back, turning the light to solid next to campers head's, making them fall to the ground one after the other. Suddenly I heard how Annabetg called to Percy as another explosion rocked the forum. This time the flash of light was directly overhead. One of the Roman catapults had fired, and the Argo II groaned and tilted sideways, flames bubbling over its bronze-plated hull.

I noticed a figure clinging desperately to the rope ladder, trying to climb down. It was Octavian, his robes steaming and his face black with soot. Percy blasted the Roman mob with more water. Annabeth ran toward him, ducking a Roman fist and a flying plate of sandwiches.

“Annabeth!” Percy called. “What—?”

“I don’t know!” she yelled.

“I’ll tell you what!” cried a voice from above. Octavian had reached the bottom of the ladder. “The Greeks have fired on us! Your boy Leo has trained his weapons on Rome!”

"He would never...!" I stopped myself. Well, someone did that, and if Octavian were her... My chest felt like it filled with liquid. I felt like I might shatter into a million frozen pieces.

“I was just there!” Octavian shrieked. “I saw it with my own eyes!” The Argo II returned fire. Legionnaires in the field scattered as one of their catapults was blasted to splinters. “You see?” Octavian screamed. “Romans, kill the invaders!” I growled. Here comes the second family member that I hate. There was no time for anyone to figure out the truth. Our crew from Camp Half-Blood was outnumbered a hundred to one, and even if Octavian had managed to stage some sort of trick, they’d never be able to convince the Romans before they were overrun and killed.

“We have to leave,” Annabeth said. “Now.”

He nodded grimly. “Hazel, Frank, you’ve got to make a choice. Are you coming?”

Hazel looked terrified, but she donned her cavalry helmet. “Of course we are. But you’ll never make it to the ship unless we buy you some time.”

“How?” I asked. 

Hazel whistled. Instantly a blur of beige shot across the forum. A majestic horse materialized next to the fountain. He reared, whinnying and scattering the mob. Hazel climbed on his back like she’d been born to ride. Strapped to the horse’s saddle was a Roman cavalry sword. Hazel unsheathed her golden blade. “Send me an Iris-message when you’re safely away, and we’ll rendezvous,” she said. “Arion, ride!”

The horse zipped through the crowd with incredible speed, pushing back Romans and causing mass panic. I felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe we could make it out of here alive. Then, from halfway across the forum, I heard Jason shouting. “Romans!” he cried. “Please!” He and Piper were being pelted with plates and stones. Jason tried to shield Piper, but a brick caught him above the eye. He crumpled, and the crowd surged forward.

“Get back!” Piper screamed. Her charmspeak rolled over the mob, making them hesitate, but I knew the effect wouldn’t last. Percy and she couldn’t possibly reach them in time to help.

“Frank,” Percy said, “It’s up to you. Can you help them?” I didn’t understand how Frank could do that all by himself, but he swallowed nervously.

“Oh, gods,” he murmured. “Okay, sure. Just get up the ropes. Now.”

We lunged for the ladder. Octavian was still clinging to the bottom, but Percy yanked him off and threw him into the mob. We began to climb as armed legionnaires flooded into the forum. Arrows whistled past my head. An explosion almost knocked me off the ladder. And through all of that i still managed to stay conscious and not threw up cause of the height. Halfway up, I heard a roar below and glanced down. Romans screamed and scattered as a full-sized dragon charged through the forum—a beast even scarier than the bronze dragon figurehead on the Argo II. It had rough gray skin like a Komodo lizard’s and leathery bat wings. Arrows and rocks bounced harmlessly off its hide as it lumbered toward Piper and Jason, grabbed them with its front claws, and vaulted into the air.

“Is that… ?” I thought Annabeth couldn’t even put the thought into words.

“Frank,” Percy confirmed, a few feet below me. “He has a few special talents.”

“Understatement,” I muttered. 

“Keep climbing!” Annabeth yelled me. Without the dragon and Hazel’s horse to distract the archers, we never would have made it up the ladder; but finally we climbed past a row of broken aerial oars and onto the deck. The rigging was on fire. The foresail was ripped down the middle, and the ship listed badly to starboard.

There was no sign of Coach Hedge, but Leo stood amidships, calmly reloading the ballista. My gut twisted with horror and I ran to him forgetting about the height.

“Leo!” I screamed, trying to push him out of the ballista. “What are you doing?!”

“Destroy them…” He faced me. His eyes were glazed. His movements were like a robot’s, and I could hear someone else in his voice. It didn't belong only to Leo. “Destroy them all.” He turned back to the ballista, but Percy tackled him. Leo’s head hit the deck hard, and his eyes rolled up so that only the whites showed. The gray dragon soared into view. It circled the ship once and landed at the bow, depositing Jason and Piper, who both collapsed.

“Go!” Percy yelled. “Get us out of here!”

"Annabeth!" I shouted and she ran for the helm. 

I made the mistake of glancing over the rail and saw armed legionnaires closing ranks in the forum, preparing flaming arrows. Hazel spurred Arion, and they raced out of the city with a mob chasing after them. More catapults were being wheeled into range. All along the Pomerian Line, the statues of Terminus were glowing purple, as if building up energy for some kind of attack. The ship groaned. The bow tilted up at a horrifying angle. The mooring lines snapped, and the Argo II shot into the clouds.


	2. Chapter 2

“One more time,” Annabeth said. “Exactly what happened?”

Leo slumped against the mast. “I don’t know. It’s fuzzy.”

Annabeth crossed her arms. “You mean you don’t remember?”

“I… I remember, but it’s like I was watching myself do things. I couldn’t control it.”

Coach Hedge tapped his bat against the deck. In his gym clothes, with his cap pulled over his horns, he looked just like he used to at the Wilderness School, where he’d spent a year undercover as mine, Jason, Piper, and Leo’s P.E. teacher. The way the old satyr was glowering, I almost wondered if the coach was going to order Leo to do push-ups. “Look, kid,” Hedge said, “You blew up some stuff. You attacked some Romans. Awesome! Excellent! But did you have to knock out the satellite channels? I was right in the middle of watching a cage match.”

“Coach,” I said, “Go and make sure all the fires are out, please."

“But I already did that.”

“I don't remember you doing that.” I rubbed my nose. "And double checking isn't bad. Especially in our situation. So please." The satyr trudged off, muttering under his breath. 

I knelt next to Leo, removing one of his curls that fell on his forehead. “Leo,” I said calmly, “Did Octavian trick you somehow? Did he frame you, or—”

“No.” Leo sighed. “The guy was a jerk, but he didn’t fire on the camp. I did.”

Frank scowled. “On purpose?”

“No!” Leo squeezed his eyes shut. “Well, yes…I mean, I didn’t want to. But at the same time, I felt like I wanted to. Something was making me do it. There was this cold feeling inside me—”

“A cold feeling.” Annabeth’s tone changed. She sounded almost…scared.

“Yeah,” Leo said. “Why?”

The girl didn't answer, so I started; "Ok, lets get it straight; Octavian was walking around the ship, then you felt a cold feeling and a desire to fire on the camp, while wanting to stop - but you couldn't control your body." 

Leo nodded and then Percy called up from the belowdecks; “Annabeth, we need you.” As soon as we'd gotten on board, Piper had taken Jason below. The cut on his head had looked pretty bad, but I worked on it pretty good so it wasn't supposed to be a big deal.

“He’ll be fine.” I said when I spotted the worry in Leo's expression.

“I’ll be back. Frank, just…watch Leo. Please.” Annabeth’s voice softened. Frank nodded.

"You don't trust me?" I huffed, standing up on my feet.

"I do," Annabeth said. "I just know that Frank is stronger than you."

Once she was gone, I stared in space, putting my hands in the pockets of my shorts, while Leo and Frank stared at each other. “So,” Frank said. “Your name isn’t Sammy?”

Leo scowled. “What kind of question is that?”

"Why would his name be Sammy?" I asked, snapping out of my thoughts.

"Doesn't matter,” Frank said quickly. “I just— Nothing. About the firing on the camp…Octavian could be behind it, like magically or something. He didn’t want the Romans getting along with you guys.”

"Yes, but I don't think he has the guts to do such a thing..." I shook my head, frowning. "At least that was my first impression of him."

“Hey,” Leo turned to me. “I should talk to Festus and get a damage report. You mind-…?”

"No, no, you can go, Frank is the one who's watching after you." I smiled, waving my hand.

"You interrupted in the middle of my sentence, Sunshine, I was about to ask if you mind joining me." Leo tried to break the hard atmosphere.

"Oh, yeah, everything for you, Torch." I grinned too.

Frank helped him up. “Who is Festus?”

“My friend,” Leo said. “His name isn’t Sammy either, in case you’re wondering. Come on. I’ll introduce you.” Fortunately the bronze dragon wasn’t damaged. Well, aside from the fact that last winter he’d lost everything except his head. When we reached the bow of the ship, the figurehead turned a hundred and eighty degrees to look at us.

Frank yelped and backed away. “It’s alive!” he said.

I would have laughed if not the guilty expression on Leo's face. “Yeah." I smirked, exhaling. "Frank, this is Festus. He used to be a full bronze dragon untill last summer, but we had an accident."

“You have a lot of accidents,” Frank noted.

“Well, some of us can’t turn into dragons, so we have to build our own.” Leo arched his eyebrows at Frank. “Anyway, I revived him as a figurehead. He’s kind of the ship’s main interface now. How are things looking, Festus?” Festus snorted smoke and made a series of squeaking, whirring sounds. While other demigods could understand Latin and Greek, Leo could speak Creak and Squeak. “Ugh,” he said. “Could be worse, but the hull is compromised in several places. The port aerial oars have to be fixed before we can go full speed again."

"We’ll need some repair materials?" I asked, taking out a pen from behind my ear. I put it in there after I had to explain to Coach Hedge on a piece of paper torn from a notebook what the Senate assignment looked like before and after the explosion. 

"Yeah," Leo nodded. I didn't had a paper so I just wrote on my wrist; "Celestial bronze, tar, lime—”

“What do you need limes for?” asked Frank.

“Dude, lime." Leo said. "Calcium carbonate, used in cement and a bunch of other— Ah, never mind. This ship isn’t going far unless we can fix it.” Festus made another click-creak noise that Leo didn’t recognize. It sounded like AY-zuhl. “Oh…Hazel,” he deciphered. “That’s the girl with the curly hair, right?”

I nodded and Frank gulped. “Is she okay?”

“Yeah, she’s fine,” Leo said. “According to Festus, her horse is racing along below. She’s following us.”

“We’ve got to land, then,” Frank said.

Leo studied him. “She’s your girlfriend?”

"Leo!" I crossed my arms.

Frank chewed his lip. “Yes.”

“You don’t sound sure.” Valdez continued.

“Yes. Yes, definitely. I’m sure.”

Leo raised his hands at my upbraiding gaze. “Okay, fine." He turned back to Frank. "The problem is we can only manage one landing. The way the hull and the oars are, we won’t be able to lift off again until we repair, so we’ll have to make sure we land somewhere with all the right supplies.”

Frank scratched his head. “Where do you get Celestial bronze? You can’t just stock up at Home Depot.”

“Festus, do a scan.”

“He can scan for magic bronze?” Frank marveled. “Is there anything he can’t do?”

"Make you a bowl of cereal," I joked, trying to relax Leo a little, but he peered over the ship’s bow, not giving any response. 

"Ria!" I heard Annabeth's voice call me from the belowdecks.

"Back soon," I said and ran to Annabeth. She met me at the stairs.

"Hey, what's up? I checked on Jason fifteen minutes ago-..."

"Do you really believe that it is not Leo's fault?" The daughter of Athena asked me.

"I told you already, Beth." My tone was serious. "I belive that he's not the one to blame. He's voice didn't sound like... His. Like someone talked through him. That's all the evidences that I can give you."

"Ok..." Annabeth nodded. Percy went out from Jason's cabin and the stairs creaked us we climbed up to the deck.

Leo walked towards us. “Is Jason—?”

“He’s resting,” Annabeth said. “Piper’s keeping an eye on him."

"He will be fine.” I said. "When he wakes up I'll check everything again, but he supposed to be fine."

Percy gave Leo a hard look. “Annabeth says you did fire the ballista?”

“Man, I—I don’t understand how it happened. I’m so sorry—”

“Sorry?” Percy growled.

"Percy." I snapped loudly, looking in the Posidon's kid, green eyes. Then they expanded for a second, like if Percy didn't knew that my voice can be harsh too.

“We’ll figure it out later." Annabeth put a hand on his shoulder. "Right now, we have to regroup and make a plan. What’s the situation with the ship?”

Leo told Annabeth about the damage and the supplies we needed. I could see that he felt better talking about something fixable. He was bemoaning the shortage of Celestial bronze when Festus began to whir and squeak.

“Perfect.” Leo sighed with relief.

“What’s perfect?” Annabeth said. “I could use some perfect about now.”

Leo managed a smile. “Everything we need in one place. Frank, why don’t you turn into a bird or something? Fly down and tell your girlfriend to meet us at the Great Salt Lake in Utah.”

Once we got there, it wasn’t a pretty landing. With the oars damaged and the foresail torn and I saw that Leo could barely manage a controlled descent. The others strapped themselves in below—except for Coach Hedge, who insisted on clinging to the forward rail, yelling, “YEAH! Bring it on, lake!” and me, who didn't wanted to leave Leo alone after what happened. Considering my fear of heights, it was a big sacrifice for me. Leo stood astern and aimed as best he could. I squeaked. I wanted to hold Leo's shirt, like I did since our quest this winter, but I was busy holding the quarterdeck handrails. 

"Sun, you better go inside!" Shouted Leo through the wind.

"And leave you here with a masochist goat?" I laughed, trying not to look at anything else but at Leo.

"I won’t forgive myself if you'll get hurt!"

"Oh you better not!"

Festus creaked and whirred warning signals, which were relayed through the intercom to the quarterdeck. “I know, I know,” Leo said. He didn’t have much time to take in the scenery. To the southeast, a city was nestled in the foothills of a mountain range, blue and purple in the afternoon shadows. A flat desert landscape spread to the south. Directly beneath us the Great Salt Lake. “Hang on, Coach!” he shouted. “This is going to hurt...”

“I was born for hurt!”

WHOOM! A swell of salt water washed over the bow, dousing Coach Hedge. The Argo II listed dangerously to starboard, then righted itself and rocked on the surface of the lake. Machinery hummed as the aerial blades that were still working changed to nautical form. Three banks of robotic oars dipped into the water and began moving us forward.

"Woohoo, we're still alive!" I said, letting go ot the handrails, jumping backwards.

“Good job, Festus,” Leo said. “Take us toward the south shore. And next time," he said, turning to me, looking me in the eye's. "I will lock you in your cabin, Sunshine. You made me afraid as hell."

"Oh, better for you if there won't be 'next time'." I said, smiling. "And you know, I think that we're alive only because I was here."

"Really?" The son of Hephaestus smirked, narrowing his eyes, came closer to me and lowered his head slightly. Our foreheads almost touched.

"Yes, I'm pretty sure in my word's." I grinned, standing up a little on my toes. This damn guy grew taller at those 6 months that we spended at camp together, and now he was almost 5'7" while I was at my 5'5. And no, I'm not complaining about it, I love my height, and I don't want to be taller, but still - every inch taller and he boasted even more, calling me 'shorty'.

“Yeah!” Coach Hedge pumped his fists in the air. He was drenched from his horns to hooves, but grinning like a crazy goat. “You better do it again instead of staring at Alex's eyes!”

“Uh…maybe later,” Leo said, standing up straight, and I could swear that he... blushed? “Just stay above deck, okay? You can keep watch, in case—you know, the lake decides to attack us or something.”

“On it,” Hedge promised. 

Leo rang the All clear bell and headed for the stairs. Before I could follow him, a loud clump-clump-clump shook the hull. A tan stallion appeared on deck with Hazel Levesque on his back. “How—?” my question died in my throat.

“We’re in the middle of a lake! Can that thing fly?” Leo asked. 

The horse whinnied angrily. “Arion can’t fly,” Hazel said. “But he can run across just about anything. Water, vertical surfaces, small mountains—none of that bothers him.”

“Oh...” Leo looked at me. "Maybe at this journey he will run even on light..." I noted that Hazel was looking at him strangely, the way she had during the feast in the forum—like she was searching for something in his face.

Coach Hedge crept forward with his baseball bat, eyeing the magic horse suspiciously. “Valdez, does this count as an invasion?”

“No!” Leo said. 

“Um, Hazel, you’d better come with me." I pointed to the stairs with my thumb. "We built a stable belowdecks, if Arion wants to—”

“He’s more of a free spirit.” Hazel slipped out of the saddle. “He’ll graze around the lake until I call him. But I want to see the ship. Lead the way.”

The Argo II was designed like an ancient trireme, only twice as big. Maybe twic and a half. The first deck had one central corridor with crew cabins on either side. On a normal trireme, most of the space would’ve been taken up with three rows of benches for a few hundred sweaty guys to do the manual labor, but Leo’s oars were automated and retractable, so they took up very little room inside the hull. The ship’s power came from the engine room on the second and lowest deck, which also housed sickbay, storage, and the stables. 

I led the way down the hall. "We built the ship with nine cabins—seven for the demigods of the prophecy, a room for the 'healer with a battlefield experience,'" I pointed at myself, grinning. "And a room for Coach Hedge. Seriously, Chiron considers him a responsible adult chaperone? But don't tell him I said that, he will kick me off the ship with his club like I'm a baseball."

Hazel laughed. On the way, we passed Jason’s room. The door was open. Piper sat at the side of his berth, holding Jason’s hand while he snored with an ice pack on his head. She glanced at us and held a finger to her lips for quiet. When we reached the mess hall, we found the others—Percy, Annabeth, and Frank—sitting dejectedly around the dining table.

We tried to make the lounge as nice as possible. The cupboard was lined with magic cups and plates from Camp Half-Blood, which would fill up with whatever food or drink you wanted on command. There was also a magical ice chest with canned drinks, perfect for picnics ashore. Though I had a feeling that they're won't be some. There were no windows, but the walls were enchanted to show real-time footage from Camp Half-Blood—the beach, the forest, the strawberry fields... Percy was staring longingly at a sunset view of Half-Blood Hill, where the Golden Fleece glittered in the branches of the tall pine tree.

“So we’ve landed,” Percy said. “What now?”

Frank plucked on his bowstring. “Figure out the prophecy? I mean…that was a prophecy Ella spoke, right? From the Sibylline Books?”

“The what?” Leo asked. Frank explained how their harpy friend was freakishly good at memorizing books. At some point in the past, she’d inhaled a collection of ancient prophecies that had supposedly been destroyed around the fall of Rome. “That’s why you didn’t tell the Romans,” Leo guessed. “You didn’t want them to get hold of her.”

Percy kept staring at the image of Half-Blood Hill. “Ella’s sensitive. She was a captive when we found her. I just didn’t want…” He made a fist. “It doesn’t matter now. I sent Tyson an Iris-message, told him to take Ella to Camp Half-Blood. They’ll be safe there.”

"Hey," Frank turned to me. "If you're a daughter of Apollo, maybe you can unravel the prophecy?"

I stared at him, "Ask me to heal a mortal wound or make you a bridge of light over the East River, and I will do this. But to unravel the prophecy...?

Annabeth laced her fingers. “Let me think about the prophecy—but right now we have more immediate problems. We have to get this ship fixed. Leo, what do we need?”

“The easiest thing is tar.” Leo was glad to change the subject. “We can get that in the city, at a roofing-supply store or someplace like that. Also, Celestial bronze and lime. According to Festus, we can find both of those on an island in the lake, just west of here.”

“We’ll have to hurry,” Hazel warned. “If I know Octavian, he’s searching for us with his auguries. The Romans will send a strike force after us. It’s a matter of honor.”

Everyone looked at Leo. “Guys…I don’t know what happened. Honestly, I—”

Annabeth raised her hand. “We’ve been talking. We agree it couldn’t have been you, Leo. That cold feeling you mentioned… I felt it too. And Ria also said that she felt something strange in your voice... It must have been some sort of magic, either Octavian or Gaea or one of her minions. But until we understand what happened—”

Frank grunted. “How can we be sure it won’t happen again?”

I wanted to say, something but Leo interrupted me; “I’m fine now,” he insisted, though he wished he could be sure. “Maybe we should use the buddy system. Nobody goes anywhere alone. We can leave Piper and Coach Hedge on board with Jason. Send one team into town to get tar. Another team can go after the bronze and the lime.”

“Split up?” Percy said. “That sounds like a really bad idea.”

“It’ll be quicker,” Hazel put in. “Besides, there’s a reason a quest is usually limited to three demigods, right?”

Annabeth raised her eyebrows, as if reappraising Hazel’s merits. “You’re right. The same reason we needed the Argo II… Outside camp, eight demigods in one place will attract way too much monstrous attention. The ship is designed to conceal and protect us. We should be safe enough on board; but if we go on expeditions, we shouldn’t travel in groups larger than three. 

"No sense alerting more of Gaea’s minions than we already did.” I mumbled.

Percy still didn’t look happy about it, but he took Annabeth’s hand. “As long as you’re my buddy, I’m good.”

Hazel smiled. “Oh, that’s easy. Frank, you were amazing, turning into a dragon! Could you do it again to fly Annabeth and Percy into town for the tar?”

Frank opened his mouth like he wanted to protest. “I…I suppose. But what about you?”

“I’ll ride Arion with Sa—with Leo, here.” She fidgeted with her sword hilt. “We’ll get the bronze and the lime. We can all meet back here by dark.”

"I'm going with you!" I said, raising my hand as if I was volunteering for some school assignment.

Frank frowned. "But aren't you a-..." Annabeth didn't let him finish;

“Good, don't forget your hair clip, it's still in your cabin,” said Annabeth, making Hazel and Frank look surprised. “Leo, if we get the supplies, how long to fix the ship?”

“With luck, just a few hours.”

“Fine,” she decided. “We’ll meet you back here as soon as possible, but stay safe. We could use some good luck. That doesn’t mean we’ll get it.”

"Oh..." Leo said looking at me. "I don’t think that the three of us can fit on Arion's back, especially with a load..." 

"Yes, I think you're right..." Hazel said. "Have any ideas how we can solve this issue?"

"I have one." I grinned widely. "A dumb, but creative one."

"Woohoo!" I screamed, laughing. As the magic horse with Leo and Hazel on his back galloped in front of me, I was glided behind, holding onto the ribbons of light I created, which were wrapped around Arion's chest. My legs glided through the instantly hardening light. Water skiing but with light and an immortal horse. Light skiing. 

Ahead of us lay an island—a line of sand so white, it might have been pure table salt. Behind that rose an expanse of grassy dunes and weathered boulders. Percy told me Hazel's story - she was a daughter of Pluto that died in the 1940s and been brought back to life only a few months ago. I had Leo to calm me down, otherwise I would run to her with a big, giant hug and the word's 'Welcome to the club!' Arion thundered onto the beach and I, because of the huge inertia, flew straight into the sand with my face. The ribbons from the light immediately dissolved, and Arion neighed joyfully, and in my opinion, malevolently. He stomped his hooves and whinnied triumphantly, like Coach Hedge yelling a battle cry. Hazel and Leo dismounted.

Leo ran to me, "You're alright?! You're not hurt, right? Is something sore?"

I spat out the sand that got in my mouth, still feeling grains on my teeth. "Calm down, Torch, I'm fine."

"You're sure…?" He held out his hand and helped me to stand up on my feet.

"Yes, Leo, I am." I cleaned my clothes from the sand and Arion pawed it. I looked at him, raising my eyebrow.

“He needs to eat,” Hazel explained. “He likes gold, but—”

“Gold?” Leo asked.

“He’ll settle for grass. Go on, Arion. Thanks for the ride. I’ll call you.” Just like that, the horse was gone—nothing left but a steaming trail across the lake.

“Fast horse,” Leo said. 

I moved my gaze from the lake. “And expensive to feed.”

“Not really,” Hazel said. “Gold is easy for me.”

Leo raised his eyebrows. “How is gold easy? Please tell me you’re not related to King Midas. I don’t like that guy.”

"We agreed on not mentioning this experience, didn't we?" I shuddered.

Hazel pursed her lips, as if she regretted raising the subject. “Never mind.”

Leo knelt and cupped a handful of white sand. “Well…one problem solved, anyway. This is lime.”

I reised my eyebrows, spreading my arms in different directions. “The whole beach?”

“Yeah. See? The granules are perfectly round. It’s not really sand. It’s calcium carbonate.” Leo pulled a Ziploc bag from his tool belt and dug his hand into the lime.

"How is this possible...?" I mumbled and squatted down, touching the sand. "There is calcium carbonate in beach send, but I never heard about a calcium carbonate instead of the sand..." Suddenly I remembered the time Gaea had appeared to me and Leo in the ground—her sleeping face made of dust and dirt. I shuddered and could fell, but instead I jumped on my feet, and did a step backwards, breathing heavily. Two months ago I saw her again in my dream; she was laughing, and said that she knows that I'm going with the seven and it only means that she will have to kill another demigod.

"You okay?" Hazel asked.

"Yeah, yeah, totally..." I took a shaky breath. Gaea wasn’t here. I am just freaking myself out. I knelt near Leo and helped him to fill the bag.

"Don't worry, I remembered her too." Leo landad his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. "Just breathe and calm down." Yes... Last time a saw Gaea I had a hard panic attack. My second panic attack - the first one was when I almost fell from a bridge on the way for Aelos's palace. My brother, Will, couldn't calm me down so he called Leo... He sat with me all night, and since that day I was afraid that Gaea will appear to me and he won't be there.

Hazel knelt next to us and helped too. “We should’ve brought a pail and shovels.”

Leo smiled. “We could’ve made a sand castle.”

“A lime castle.” I reminded him.

Hazel looked at Leo. “You are so much like—”

“Sammy?” Leo guessed.

She fell backward, looking at him and then at me. “You know?”

“I have no idea who Sammy is." Leo shrugged. "But Frank asked me if I was sure that wasn’t my name.”

“And… It isn’t?”

“No! Jeez.”

“You don’t have a twin brother or…” Hazel stopped. “Is your family from New Orleans?”

“Nah. Houston. Why? Is Sammy a guy you used to know?”

“I…It’s nothing. You just look like him.”

"I personally think you look like this actor, Jake Austin." I smirked.

Leo raised his eyebrows, "Who?"

I snapped my fingers, "The one that played Max Russo at' Wizards of Waverly place'..."

"Heck no!" 

"Heck yes!" I laughed at his somehow disgusted expression.

We finished filling the bag. Leo stuffed it in his tool belt and the bag vanished. I stood and scanned the island—bleach-white dunes, blankets of grass, and boulders encrusted with salt like frosting. Leo stood up too. “Festus said there was Celestial bronze close by, but I’m not sure where—”

“That way.” Hazel pointed up the beach. “About five hundred yards.”

I raised my eyebrows, “How do you—?”

“Precious metals,” Hazel said. “It’s a Pluto thing.”

“Handy talent." I let out a single laugh.

"Lead the way, Miss Metal Detector.” said Leo. The sun began to set. The sky turned a bizarre mix of purple and yellow. In another reality, I might’ve enjoyed a walk on the beach, but now it meant that if wont finish until the full sunset, I won't be able to control the day light, because there is non. Finally, Hazel turned inland.

“You sure this is a good idea?” Leo asked.

“We’re close,” she promised. “Come on.”

And just over the dunes, we saw the woman. She sat on a boulder in the middle of a grassy field. A black-and-chrome motorcycle was parked nearby, but each of the wheels had a big pie slice removed from the spokes and rim, so that they resembled Pac-Men. No way was the bike drivable in that condition. The woman had curly black hair and a bony frame. She wore black leather biker’s pants, tall leather boots, and a bloodred leather jacket—sort of a Michael Jackson joins the Hell’s Angels look. Around her feet, the ground was littered with what looked like broken shells. She was hunched over, pulling new ones out of a sack and cracking them open. Shucking oysters? I wasn’t sure if there were oysters in the Great Salt Lake. As we got closer, I noticed a lot of disturbing details. Attached to the woman’s belt was a curled whip. Her red-leather jacket had a subtle design to it—twisted branches of an apple tree populated with skeletal birds. The oysters she was shucking were actually fortune cookies. A pile of broken cookies lay ankle-deep all around her. She kept pulling new ones from her sack, cracking them open, and reading the fortunes. Most she tossed aside. A few made her mutter unhappily. She would swipe her finger over the slip of paper like she was smudging it, then magically reseal the cookie and toss it into a nearby basket.

“What are you doing?” Leo asked. The woman looked up and I froze. "Aunt Rosa?” Leo asked.

She looked exactly like my mom's best friend, Anastasia. Same face, hair, even the always-disgusted look on her face. She hated me, always told me that I ruined her friendship with my mom, and I hated her back, because every time she was in our apartment, I had to sit in my room and pretend like I don't exist. I gulped and pulled my hair clip from my head. A bow appeared in my hand and a quiver on my back. Hazel looked at me, surprised, but I didn't care - I pulled the bowstring, aiming towards the woman.

"You..." I cleaned my throat. "Stop looking like my mom's friend."

“Is that what you see?” the woman asked. “Interesting. And you, Hazel, dear?”

“How did you—?” Hazel stepped back in alarm. “You—you look like Mrs. Leer. My third grade teacher. I hated you.”

The woman cackled. “Excellent. You resented her, eh? She judged you unfairly?”

“You—she taped my hands to the desk for misbehaving,” Hazel said. “She called my mother a witch. She blamed me for everything I didn’t do and— No. She has to be dead. Who are you?”

“Oh, I think your friends know,” the woman said. “You won't shoot the arrow, right, Sunshine?”

"Don't... Call me that." I said, lowering my bow and breathing heavily. I thought that not firing this arrow was my most difficult decision ever.

“Nemesis,” Leo said. “You’re the goddess of revenge.”

“You see?” The goddess smiled at Hazel. “They recognizes me.” Nemesis cracked another cookie and wrinkled her nose. “You will have great fortune when you least expect it,” she read. “That’s exactly the sort of nonsense I hate. Someone opens a cookie, and suddenly they have a prophecy that they’ll be rich! I blame that tramp Tyche. Always dispensing good luck to people who don’t deserve it!”

Leo looked at the mound of broken cookies. “Uh…you know those aren’t real prophecies, right? They’re just stuffed in the cookies at some factory—”

“Don’t try to excuse it!” Nemesis snapped. “It’s just like Tyche to get people’s hopes up. No, no. I must counter her.” Nemesis flicked a finger over the slip of paper, and the letters changed to red. “You will die painfully when you most expect it. There! Much better."

"That's terrifyingly accurate for demigods. I will never eat this shit anymore." I mattered.

“That’s horrible!” Hazel said. “You’d let someone read that in their fortune cookie, and it would come true?”

Nemesis sneered. It really was creepy, seeing that expression on Anastasis face. “My dear Hazel, haven’t you ever wished horrible things on Mrs. Leer for the way she treated you?”

“That doesn’t mean I’d want them to come true!”

“Bah.” The goddess resealed the cookie and tossed it in her basket. “Tyche would be Fortuna for you, I suppose, being Roman. Like the others, she’s in a horrible way right now. Me? I’m not affected. I am called Nemesis in both Greek and Roman. I do not change, because revenge is universal.”

“What are you talking about?” Leo asked.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

Nemesis opened another cookie. “Lucky numbers. Ridiculous! That’s not even a proper fortune!” She crushed the cookie and scattered the pieces around her feet.

“To answer your question, Leo Valdez, the gods are in terrible shape. It always happens when a civil war is brewing between you Romans and Greeks. The Olympians are torn between their two natures, called on by both sides. They become quite schizophrenic, I’m afraid. Splitting headaches. Disorientation.”

“But we’re not at war,” Leo insisted.

“Um, Leo…” Hazel winced. “Except for the fact that you recently blew up large sections of New Rome.”

“Not on purpose!”

“We know, Leo” I said, putting the arrow in my quiver, landing my hand on Leo's shoulder. “But the Romans don’t realize that. And they’ll be pursuing us in retaliation.”

Nemesis cackled. “Leo, listen to the girl. War is coming. Gaea has seen to it, with your help. And can you guess whom the gods blame for their predicament?”

“Me.” Leo said, and I squeezed his shoulder.

The goddess snorted. “Well, don’t you have a high opinion of yourself. You’re just a pawn on the chessboard, Leo Valdez. I was referring to the player who set this ridiculous quest in motion, bringing the Greeks and Romans together. The gods blame Hera—or Juno, if you prefer! The queen of the heavens has fled Olympus to escape the wrath of her family. Don’t expect any more help from your patron!”

I had mixed feelings about Hera. She’d meddled in my life since I was a baby, took Jason from us and tried to ruin Thalia's life, but at least she had been on our side, more or less. If she was out of the picture now… “So why are you here?” I asked.

“Why, to offer my help!” Nemesis smiled wickedly.

“Your help,” Leo said.

“Of course!” said the goddess. “I enjoy tearing down the proud and powerful, and there are none who deserve tearing down like Gaea and her giants. Still, I must warn you that I will not suffer undeserved success. Good luck is a sham. The wheel of fortune is a Ponzi scheme. True success requires sacrifice.”

“Sacrifice?” Hazel’s voice was tight. “I lost my mother. I died and came back. Now my brother is missing. Isn’t that enough sacrifice for you?” I could totally relate. I wanted to scream that I'd lost my mom too. My whole life had been one catastrophi after another. And, I died and came back too.

“Right now,” Leo said, “All I want is some Celestial bronze.”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Nemesis said. “It’s just over the rise. You’ll find it with the sweethearts.”

“Wait,” Hazel said. “What sweethearts?”

Nemesis popped a cookie in her mouth and swallowed it, fortune and all. “You’ll see. Perhaps they will teach you a lesson, Hazel Levesque. Most heroes cannot escape their nature, even when given a second chance at life.” She smiled. “And speaking of your brother Nico, you don’t have much time. Let’s see…it’s June twenty-fifth? Yes, after today, six more days. Then he dies, along with the entire city of Rome.”

"What?!" My voice was hoarse.

Hazel’s eyes widened. “How…what—?”

Nemesis brushed cookie dust off her jacket, and her gaze landed on me. Her expression changed, as if she just remembered something funny. "The kid with the name of the old city, huh? You know, I think all the god's heard about you. Even before your little quest last winter." She looked at me like I was a very intelligent pet. "All I have to say, is that you better watch out. You wasn't supposed to be here. Neither alive nor at this quest. Your not one of them. And I'm almost sure won't survive."

"Well, this is gonna be just another thing that I wasn't supposed to do." I looked her in the eye's, just like I used to look straight in Anastasia's eye's. "I'll survive. All of us will, and I'll make sure that it happens."

Nemesis looked at me and chuckled. “As for you, child of fire.” She turned to Leo. “Your worst hardships are yet to come. You will always be the outsider, the seventh wheel. You will not find a place among your brethren. Soon you will face a problem you cannot solve, though I could help you…for a price.”

I smelled smoke. I realized Leo's fingers on his left hand were ablaze, and Hazel was staring at him in terror. He shoved his hand in his pocket and extinguish the flames. “I like to solve my own problems.”

“Very well.” 

“But, um, what sort of price are we talking about?”

The goddess shrugged. “One of my children recently traded an eye for the ability to make a real difference in the world.”

"Ethan Nakamura." My voice trembled for a moment and I cleaned my throat. "I knew him. He died as a hero... Although he deserved to live."

"That's your burden, am I correct?" Nemesis looked at me again. "You think that everyone who died in this war deserved to live, and that's your return isn't fair. Why are you still alive then? Why are you trying to survive-...?"

"Because I'm here." I snapped. "And if I'm alive, I'll make sure no one of my beloved one's dies." The goddess and I stared at each other for a moment.

"So you…want my eye?” Leo asked nervously.

“In your case, perhaps another sacrifice would do. But something just as painful. Here.” Nemesis handed him an unbroken fortune cookie. “If you need an answer, break this. It will solve your problem.”

Leo’s hand trembled as he held the fortune cookie. “What problem?”

“You’ll know when the time comes.”

“No, thanks,” Leo said firmly but his hand slipped the cookie into his tool belt.

Nemesis picked another cookie from her bag and cracked it open. “You will have cause to reconsider your choices soon. Oh, I like that one. No changes needed here.”

She resealed the cookie and tossed it into the basket. “Very few gods will be able to help you on the quest. Most are already incapacitated, and their confusion will only grow worse. One thing might bring unity to Olympus again—an old wrong finally avenged. Ah, that would be sweet indeed, the scales finally balanced! But it will not happen unless you accept my help.”

“I suppose you won’t tell us what you’re talking about,” Hazel muttered. “Or why my brother Nico has only six days to live. Or why Rome is going to be destroyed.”

Nemesis chuckled. She rose and slung her sack of cookies over her shoulder. “Oh, it’s all tied together, Hazel Levesque. As for my offer, Leo Valdez, give it some thought. You’re a good child. A hard worker. We could do business. But I have detained you too long. You should visit the reflecting pool before the light fades. My poor cursed boy gets quite…agitated when the darkness comes.” The goddess climbed on her motorcycle and disappeared in a mushroom cloud of black smoke.

I looked at the dark sky, and shouted; "Can I be an atheist?! Please?!"

Hazel bent down. All the broken cookies and fortunes had disappeared except for one crumpled slip of paper. She picked it up and read, “You will see yourself reflected, and you will have reason to despair.”

“Fantastic,” Leo grumbled. “Let’s go see what that means.”

"Do you want to bet that we will get nearly killed?" I snored.


	3. Chapter 3

“Who is Aunt Rosa?” Hazel asked, looking at Leo.

“Long story,” he said. “She abandoned me after my mom died, gave me to foster care.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well…” Leo looked at me. “What about you, Sun'? She looked like your mother's friend...?"

"Mom's best friend, Anastasia." I said, controlling my anger. "She always said that I was a big, huge mistake and that I ruined my mother's life." I felt something touching my arm. Leo interweaved his fingers with mine.

"I don't know, I think that you're definitely lightened up my world, Sunshine." I blushed, and at first and the last time was glad that the sun was going down, making our faces look a little pink like the sky.

"A-anyway" I turned to Hazel, "What Nemesis said about Nico?"

Hazel blinked like she’d gotten salt in her eyes. “Nico… he found me in the Underworld. He brought me back to the mortal world and convinced the Romans at Camp Jupiter to accept me. I owe him for my second chance at life. If Nemesis is right, and Nico’s in danger…I have to help him.”

“We will." She looked at me. "His my friend, even if he always calls me loud and annoying. We will save him no matter what."

"Sure." Leo said. “And what Nemesis said about him having six days to live, and Rome getting destroyed…any idea what she meant?”

“None,” Hazel admitted. “But I’m afraid…”

Whatever she was thinking, she decided not to share it. She climbed one of the largest boulders to get a better view. Leo and I let go of eachother's hand and tried to follow. Leo lost his balance and I caught his hand, pulled him up and we found ourselves atop the rock, holding hands, face-to-face. I swear I could hear Hazel's uncomfortableness.

“Um, thanks.” Leo let go of my hand, but we were still standing so close, I could feel the warmth of his breath.

“When we were talking to Nemesis,” Hazel said uneasily, “Your hands… I saw flames.”

“Yeah,” Leo said. “It’s a Hephaestus power. Usually I can keep it under control.”

“Oh.” She put one hand protectively on her denim shirt, like she was about to say the Pledge of Allegiance.

I gazed across the island. The opposite shore was only a few hundred yards away. Between here and there were dunes and clumps of boulders, but nothing that looked like a reflecting pool.

~ LEO'S POV. ~

'You will always be the outsider' Nemesis had told me, 'The seventh wheel. You will not find a place among your brethren.'

She might as well have poured acid in my ears. I didn’t need anybody to tell me I was odd man out. I'd spent months alone in Bunker 9 at Camp Half-Blood, working on the ship while my friends trained together and shared meals and played capture-the-flag for fun and prizes. Even Piper and Jason, often treated me like an outsider. Since they’d started dating, their idea of “quality time” didn’t include me. And Festus had been reduced to a figurehead when his control disk had gotten destroyed on their last adventure. I didn’t have the technical skill to repair it. The seventh wheel. I had heard of a fifth wheel—an extra, useless piece of equipment. I figured a seventh wheel was worse. I thought maybe this quest would be a fresh start. All my hard work on the Argo II would pay off. I'd have six good friends who would admire and appreciate me, and we'd go sailing off into the sunrise to fight giants. Do the math, I chided himself. Nemesis was right. I might be part of a group of seven, but I was still isolated. I had fired on the Romans and brought my friends nothing but trouble. 'You will not find a place among your brethren'.

“Leo?” I heard a voice and looked up. Alex was looking at me, worriedly. Her grey eyes we're shining in the going sunlight, her blond hair was messy, and she had a little scar on her eyebrow - she got it when she was nine when someone threw a chair on her. “You can’t take what Nemesis said to heart.”

I frowned. “What if it’s true?”

"Leo," Al gently grabbed my face in her palms, making me look her straight in the eyes and I suddenly remembered all the times that I spent with her at the camp. The times when she sneaked out of her cabin and ran to the Bunker, the couple of times we had a picnic by the river in the forest, and the time when she slept there because no one of us knew what time is it and if the harpies already on patrol. "You are one of the best, best, best people I know. And I know a lot of them."

"Am I better than Jason?" I said grinning slightly, but at heart I felt a little jealous. Of course I won't be better than Jason, his so perfect, and he's her-... "Of course!" She laughed and I stared at her. "He's my cousin, his one of the worst. But listen here carefully, and remember these words forever, Torch," she smiled warmly at me. "I admire you and appreciate you, and if these guys ever kick you out of the seven, I'm always here." She smiled, letting of my face, but only after she gave me a kiss on the cheek, making me blush. "I'm always happy to make a two wheeled bike out of one. Maybe Nemesis didn't thought about it."

“Basides, she’s the goddess of revenge,” Hazel reminded us. “Maybe she’s on our side, maybe not; but she exists to stir up resentment.”

“We should keep going,” I said, feeling better than earlier. “I wonder what Nemesis meant about finishing before dark.”

Alex glanced at the sun, which was just touching the horizon, and I could feel her muscles tense. I knew that she prefers to fight under the sun because her powers. “And who is the cursed boy she mentioned?”

Below us, a voice said, “Cursed boy she mentioned.”

~ END OF LEO'S POV. ~

At first, I saw no one. I could look directly attl the sun, but I had terrible vision at night. When my eyes adjusted, I realized a young woman was standing only ten feet from the base of the boulder. Her dress was a Greek-style tunic the same color as the rocks. Her wispy hair was somewhere between brown and blond and gray, so it blended with the dry grass. She wasn’t invisible, exactly, but she was almost perfectly camouflaged until she moved. Even then, I had trouble focusing on her. Her face was pretty but not memorable.

“Hello,” Hazel said. “Who are you?”

“Who are you?” the girl answered. Her voice sounded weary, like she was tired of answering that question. We exchanged looks. With this demigod gig, you never knew what you’d run into. Nine times out of ten, it wasn’t good. A ninja girl camouflaged in earth tones didn’t strike me as something I wanted to deal with.

“Are you the cursed kid Nemesis mentioned?” Leo asked. “But you’re a girl.”

“You’re a girl,” said the girl.

“Excuse me?” Leo said.

“Excuse me,” the girl said miserably.

“You’re repeating…” Leo stopped. “Oh. Hold it. Wasn’t there some myth about a girl who repeated everything—?”

“Echo,” I said, not moving my gaze from the girl.

“Echo,” the girl agreed. She shifted, her dress changing with the landscape. Her eyes were the color of the salt water.

“I don’t remember the myth,” Leo admitted. “You were cursed to repeat the last thing you heard?”

“You heard,” Echo said.

“Poor thing,” Hazel said. “If I remember right, a goddess did this?”

“A goddess did this,” Echo confirmed.

Leo scratched his head. “But wasn’t that thousands of years…oh. You’re one of the mortals who came back through the Doors of Death. I really wish we could stop running into dead people.”

“Dead people,” Echo said, like she was chastising him.

I realized Hazel was staring at her feet. "I mean, you're right," I crossed my arms. "But I can be offended."

“Uh…sorry,” Leo muttered. “I didn’t mean it that way.”

“That way.” Echo pointed toward the far shore of the island.

“You want to show us something?” Hazel asked. She climbed down the boulder, and we followed. Even up close, Echo was hard to see. In fact, she seemed to get more invisible the longer I looked at her.

“You sure you’re real?” Leo asked. “I mean…flesh and blood?”

“Flesh and blood.” She touched Leo’s face and made him flinch.

“So…you have to repeat everything?” he asked.

“Everything.”

Leo couldn’t help smiling. “That could be fun.”

“Fun,” she said unhappily.

“Blue elephants.”

“Blue elephants.”

“Kiss me, you fool.”

“You fool.”

“Hey!”

“Hey!”

“Leo,” Hazel pleaded, “Don’t tease her.”

“Don’t tease her,” Echo agreed.

“Okay, okay,” Leo said. 

I pulled a pen - the one I was writing with on my wrist - from my pocket. I offered it to Echo, putting my hand forward as if it was a notebook, "You can write on my hand."

"Write on my hand." Echo shook her head.

"You..." I frowned. "Don't know how to write...?"

"Don't know how to write." Echo nodded. 

I rubbed my forehead, looking at Leo and Hazel for help “What were you pointing at?" Leo asked. "Do you need our help?”

“Help,” Echo agreed emphatically. She gestured for us to follow and sprinted down the slope. We could only follow her progress by the movement of the grass and the shimmer of her dress as it changed to match the rocks.

“We’d better hurry,” Hazel said. “Or we’ll lose her.”

We found the problem. Echo led us down into a grassy meadow shaped like a blast crater, with a small pond in the middle. Gathered at the water’s edge were several dozen nymphs. They wore gossamer dresses, their feet were bare, they had elfish features, and their skin had a slightly greenish tinge. I didn’t understand what they were doing, but they were all crowded together in one spot, facing the pond and jostling for a better view. Several held up phone cameras, trying to get a shot over the heads of the others. I had never seen nymphs with phones. I wondered if they were looking at a dead body. If so, why were they bouncing up and down and giggling so excitedly?

“What are they looking at?” Leo wondered.

“Looking at,” Echo sighed.

“Give me five seconds.” I marched forward and began nudging my way through the crowd. “Move already, extras... And don't look at me like that!”

“Hey!” one nymph complained. “We were here first!”

“Yeah,” another sniffed. “He won’t be interested in you.” The second nymph had large red hearts painted on her cheeks. Over her dress, she wore a T-shirt that read: OMG, I <3 N!!!!

"Hey," I almost growl. "You don't want to mess with a daughter of Apollo, don't you?"

“Uh, yes, it's a demigod business,” Leo said like a police officer. “Make room. Thanks.” The nymphs grumbled, but they parted to reveal a young man kneeling at the edge of the pond, gazing intently at the water. He was a super good-looking dude. He had a chiseled face with lips and eyes that were somewhere between feminine beautiful and masculine handsome. Dark hair swept over his brow. He might’ve been seventeen or twenty, it was hard to say, but he was built like a dancer—with long graceful arms and muscular legs, perfect posture and an air of regal calm. He wore a simple white T-shirt and jeans, with a bow and quiver strapped to his back. The weapons obviously hadn’t been used in a while. The arrows were covered in dust. A spider had woven a web in the top of the bow. As I edged closer, I realized the guy’s face was unusually golden. In the sunset, the light was bouncing off a large flat sheet of Celestial bronze that lay at the bottom of the pond, washing Mr. Handsome’s features in a warm glow. The guy seemed fascinated with his reflection in the metal.

Hazel inhaled sharply. “He’s gorgeous.” Around her, the nymphs squealed and clapped in agreement.

“I am,” the young man murmured dreamily, his gaze still fixed on the water. “I am so gorgeous.”

"Nah, not really my type." I said, looking at him, frowning.

The nymphs gasped. "You can't talk to him like that!" One of them tried to push me to the lake, but Leo catched me.

"Hey, hey, girls calm down...!" He said, making sure I'm standing on my feet.

One of the nymphs showed her iPhone screen. “Look, his latest YouTube video got a million hits in like, an hour. I think I was half of those!”

“YouTube video?” Leo asked. “What does he do in the video, sing?”

“No, silly!” the nymph chided. “He used to be a prince, and a wonderful hunter and stuff. But that doesn’t matter. Now he just…well, look!” She showed Leo the video. It was exactly what we were seeing in real life—the guy staring at himself in the pond.

“He is sooooo hot!” said another girl. Her T-shirt read: MRS. NARCISSUS.  
“Narcissus?” Leo asked.

“Narcissus,” Echo agreed sadly. I had almost forgotten Echo was there. Apparently none of the nymphs had noticed her either.

“Oh, not you again!” Mrs. Narcissus tried to push Echo away, but she misjudged where the camouflaged girl was and ended up shoving several other nymphs.

“You had your chance, Echo!” said the nymph with the iPhone. “He dumped you four thousand years ago! You are so not good enough for him.”

“For him,” Echo said bitterly.

“Wait.” Hazel clearly had trouble tearing her eyes away from the handsome guy, but she managed it. “What’s going on here? Why did Echo bring us here?”

One nymph rolled her eyes. She was holding an autograph pen and a crumpled poster of Narcissus. “Echo was a nymph like us, a long time ago, but she was a total chatterbox! Gossiping, blah, blah, blah, all the time.”

“I know!” another nymph shrieked. “Like, who could stand that? Just the other day, I told Cleopeia—you know she lives in the boulder next to me?—I said: Stop gossiping or you’ll end up like Echo. Cleopeia is such a big mouth! Did you hear what she said about that cloud nymph and the satyr?”

“Totally!” said the nymph with the poster. “So anyway, as punishment for blabbing, Hera cursed Echo so she could only repeat things, which was fine with us. But then Echo fell in love with our gorgeous guy, Narcissus—as if he would ever notice her.”

“As if!” said half a dozen others.

“Now she’s got some weird idea he needs saving,” said Mrs. Narcissus. “She should just go away.”

“Go away,” Echo growled back.

“I’m so glad Narcissus is alive again,” said another nymph in a gray dress. She had the words NARCISSUS + LAIEA written up and down her arms in black marker. “He’s like the best! And he’s in my territory.”

“Oh, stop it, Laiea,” her friend said. “I’m the pond nymph. You’re just the rock nymph.”

“Well, I’m the grass nymph,” another protested.

“No, he obviously came here because he likes the wildflowers!” another said. “Those are mine!” The whole mob began arguing while Narcissus stared at the lake, ignoring them.

“Hold it!” Leo yelled. “Ladies, hold it! I need to ask Narcissus something.” Slowly the nymphs settled down and went back to taking pictures.

Leo knelt next to the handsome dude. “So, Narcissus. What’s up?”

“Could you move?” Narcissus asked distractedly. “You’re ruining the view.”

Leo looked in the water. His own reflection rippled next to Narcissus’s on the surface of the submerged bronze. What it was doing in this pond, I wasn’t sure. Celestial bronze fell to earth in odd places. Hephaestus would lose his temper when projects didn’t work out, and he’d toss his scraps into the mortal world. This piece looked like it might have been meant as a shield for a god, but it hadn’t turned out properly. It would be just enough bronze for our repairs. “Right, great view,” Leo said. “Happy to move, but if you’re not using it, could I just take that sheet of bronze?”

“No,” Narcissus said. “I love him. He’s so gorgeous.”

I looked around to see if the nymphs were laughing. This had to be a huge joke. But they were swooning and nodding in agreement. Hazel wrinkled her nose as if she’d come to the conclusion that Narcissus smelled worse than he looked. I looked at Leo who turned to us, and shrugged.

“Man,” Leo said to Narcissus. “You do realize that you’re looking at yourself in the water, right?”

“I am so great,” Narcissus sighed. He stretched out a hand longingly to touch the water, but held back. “No, I can’t make ripples. That ruins the image. Wow…I am so great.”

“Yeah,” Leo muttered. “But if I took the bronze, you could still see yourself in the water. Or here…” He reached in his tool belt and pulled out a simple mirror the size of a monocle. “I’ll trade you.”

Narcissus took the mirror, reluctantly, and admired himself. “Even you carry a picture of me? I don’t blame you. I am gorgeous. Thank you.” He set the mirror down and returned his attention to the pond. “But I already have a much better image. The color flatters me, don’t you think?”

“Oh, gods, yes!” a nymph screamed. “Marry me, Narcissus!”

“No, me!” another cried. “Would you sign my poster?”

“No, sign my shirt!”

“No, sign my forehead!”

“No, sign my—”

“Stop it!” Hazel snapped.

“Stop it,” Echo agreed. I had lost sight of Echo again, but now I realized she was kneeling on the other side of Narcissus, waving her hand in front of his face as if trying to break his concentration. Narcissus didn’t even blink.

The nymph fan club tried to shove me and Hazel out of the way, but she drew her cavalry sword and forced them back, while I transformed my hair clip to my bow, aiming at their feet. “Snap out of it!” Hazel yelled.

“He won’t sign your sword,” the poster nymph complained.

"Are you trying to cosplay him?" The girl with the colored hands asked me, looking at my weapon.

“He won’t marry you,” said the iPhone girl. “And you can’t take his bronze mirror! That’s what keeps him here!”

“You’re all ridiculous,” Hazel said. “He’s so full of himself!" 

"Yeah," I agreed. "Like how can you possibly like him?”

“Like him,” Echo sighed, still waving her hand in front of his face. The others sighed along with her.

“I am so hot,” Narcissus said sympathetically.

“Narcissus, listen.” Hazel kept her sword at the ready. “Echo brought us here to help you. Didn’t you, Echo?”

“Echo,” said Echo.

“Who?” Narcissus said.

“The only girl here who cares what happens to you, apparently,” I said. “Do you remember dying?”

Narcissus frowned. “I…no. That can’t be right. I am much too important to die.”

“You died staring at yourself,” Hazel insisted. “I remember the story now. Nemesis was the goddess who cursed you, because you broke so many hearts. Your punishment was to fall in love with your own reflection.”

“I love me so, so much,” Narcissus agreed.

“You finally died,” Hazel continued. “I don’t know which version of the story is true. You either drowned yourself or turned into a flower hanging over the water or—Echo, which is it?”

“Which is it?” she said hopelessly.

Leo stood. “It doesn’t matter. The point is you’re alive again, man. You have a second chance. That’s what Nemesis was telling us. You can get up, and get on with your life. Echo is trying to save you. Or you can stay here and stare at yourself until you die again.”

“Stay here!” all the nymphs screamed.

“Marry me before you die!” another squeaked.

Narcissus shook his head. “You just want my reflection. I don’t blame you, but you can’t have it. I belong to me.”

I sighed in exasperation and glanced at the sun, which was sinking fast. Then I gestured with my bow toward the edge of the crater. “Leo, could we talk for a minute?”

“Excuse us,” Leo told Narcissus. “Echo, want to come with?”

“Come with,” Echo confirmed. 

The nymphs clustered around Narcissus again and began recording new videos and taking more photos. Hazel led the way until we were out of earshot. “Nemesis was right,” she said. “Some demigods can’t change their nature. Narcissus is going to stay there until he dies again.”

“No,” Leo said.

“No,” Echo agreed.

“We need that bronze,” Leo said. “If we take it away, it might give Narcissus a reason to snap out of it. Echo could have a chance to save him.”

“A chance to save him,” Echo said gratefully.

Hazel stabbed her sword in the sand. “It could also make several dozen nymphs very angry with us,” she said. 

“And Narcissus might still know how to shoot his bow..." I reminded them. The sun was just about down. Nemesis had mentioned that Narcissus got agitated after dark, probably because he couldn’t see his reflection anymore. I didn’t want to stick around long enough to find out what the goddess meant by agitated. 

“Hazel,” Leo said, “Your power with precious metal— Can you just detect it, or can you actually summon it to you?”

She frowned. “Sometimes I can summon it. I’ve never tried with a piece of Celestial bronze that big before. I might be able to draw it to me through the earth, but I’d have to be fairly close. It would take a lot of concentration, and it wouldn’t be fast.”

“Be fast,” Echo warned.

Leo cursed. “All right,” he said. “We’ll have to try something risky. Hazel, how about you try to summon the bronze from right here? Make it sink through the sand and tunnel over to you, then grab it and run with Al for the ship.”

“But Narcissus is looking at it all the time,” I said.

“All the time,” Echo echoed.

“That’ll be my job,” Leo said. “Echo and I will cause a distraction.”

“Distraction?” Echo asked.

“I’ll explain,” Leo promised. “Are you willing?”

“Willing,” Echo said.

“Great,” Leo said. “Now, let’s hope we don’t die.”

"We have experience in that... "

Leo psyched himself up for an extreme makeover. He summoned some breath mints and a pair of welding goggles from his tool belt. The goggles weren’t exactly sunglasses, but they’d have to do. He tried to roll up the sleeves of his shirt, but I had to help him - after I transformed my hair clip back - because this little boy didn't knew how to cause them to stay on place and not slip down. He used some machine oil to grease back his hair, which looked ridiculous and I could help myself but laugh and call him Draco Malfoy. He stuck a wrench in his back pocket why exactly, I wasn’t sure and he had Hazel draw a tattoo on his biceps with a marker: HOT STUFF, with a skull and crossbones.

“What in the world are you thinking?” I still sounded pretty flustered.

“I try not to think,” Leo admitted. “It interferes with being nuts. Just concentrate on moving that Celestial bronze, Hazel, and ran to the beach. Echo, you ready?”

“Ready,” she said.

Leo took a deep breath. “Leo is the coolest!” he shouted.

“Leo is the coolest!” Echo shouted back.

“Yeah, baby, check me out!”

“Check me out!” Echo said.

“Make way for the king!”

“The king!”

“Narcissus is weak!”

“Weak!”

I looked at him, trying not to laugh, while the crowd of nymphs scattered in surprise. Leo shooed them away as if they were bothering him. “No autographs, girls. I know you want some Leo time, but I’m way too cool. You better just hang around that ugly dweeb Narcissus. He’s lame!”

“Lame!” Echo said with enthusiasm.

The nymphs muttered angrily. “What are you talking about?” one demanded.

“You’re lame,” said another.

Leo adjusted his goggles and smiled. He flexed his biceps and showed off his HOT STUFF tattoo. He had the nymphs’ attention, if only because they were stunned; but Narcissus was still fixed on his own reflection. “You know how ugly Narcissus is?” Leo asked the crowd. “He’s so ugly, when he was born his mama thought he was a backward centaur—with a horse butt for a face.” 

I started laughing like an idion. Some of the nymphs gasped. Narcissus frowned, as though he was vaguely aware of a gnat buzzing around his head.

“You know why his bow has cobwebs?” Leo continued. “He uses it to hunt for dates, but he can’t find one!” One of the nymphs laughed. The others quickly elbowed her into silence. But I didn't had anyone to elbow me, so I continued to choke form laughter, trying not to make any noise.

Narcissus turned and scowled at Leo. “Who are you?”

“I’m the Super-sized McShizzle, man!” Leo said. “I’m Leo Valdez, bad boy supreme. And the ladies love a bad boy.”

“Love a bad boy!” Echo said, with a convincing squeal.

Leo took out a pen and autographed the arm of one of the nymphs. “Narcissus is a loser! He’s so weak, he can’t bench-press a Kleenex. He’s so lame, when you look up lame on Wikipedia, it’s got a picture of Narcissus—only the picture’s so ugly, no one ever checks it out.” I noted to myself to check the word lame on Wikipedia. I just had to make sure.

Narcissus knit his handsome eyebrows. His face was turning from bronze to salmon pink. For the moment, he’d totally forgotten about the pond, and I could see the sheet of bronze sinking into the sand. I looked at Hazel; she was highly consentraited. “What are you talking about?” Narcissus demanded. “I am amazing. Everyone knows this.”

“Amazing at pure suck,” Leo said. “If I was as suck as you, I’d drown myself. Oh wait, you already did that.”

Another nymph giggled. Then another. Narcissus growled, which did make him look a little less handsome. Meanwhile Leo beamed and wiggled his eyebrows over his goggles and spread his hands, gesturing for applause. “That’s right!” he said. “Team Leo for the win!”

“Team Leo for the win!” Echo shouted. She’d wriggled into the mob of nymphs, and because she was so hard to see, the nymphs apparently thought the voice came from one of their own.

“Oh my god, I am so awesome!” Leo bellowed.

“So awesome!” Echo yelled back.

“He is funny,” a nymph ventured.

“And cute, in a scrawny way,” another said.

“Scrawny?” Leo asked. “Baby, I invented scrawny. Scrawny is the new sizzling hot. And I GOT the scrawny. Narcissus? He’s such a loser even the Underworld didn’t want him. He couldn’t get the ghost girls to date him.” I snored.

“Eww,” said a nymph.

“Eww!” Echo agreed.

“Stop!” Narcissus got to his feet. “This is not right! This person is obviously not awesome, so he must be…” He struggled for the right words. It had probably been a long time since he’d talked about anything other than himself. “He must be tricking us.” Apparently Narcissus wasn’t completely stupid. Realization dawned on his face. He turned back to the pond. “The bronze mirror is gone! My reflection! Give me back to me!” Oops. Sorry not sorry.

“Team Leo!” one of the nymphs squeaked. But the others returned their attention to Narcissus.

“I’m the beautiful one!” Narcissus insisted. “He’s stolen my mirror, and I’m going to leave unless we get it back!”

The girls gasped. One pointed. “There!”

We we're already was at the top of the crater, running away as fast as we could while lugging a large sheet of bronze.

“Get it back!” cried a nymph.

Probably against her will, Echo muttered, “Get it back.”

“Yes!” Narcissus unslung his bow and grabbed an arrow from his dusty quiver. “The first one who gets that bronze, I will like you almost as much as I like me. I might even kiss you, right after I kiss my reflection!”

“Oh my gods!” the nymphs screamed.

“And kill those demigods!” Narcissus added, glaring Leo. “They are not as cool as me!”

Demigods could run pretty fast when someone was trying to kill him. Sadly, we'd had a lot of practice. Leo overtook me and Hazel, which was easy, since we were struggling with fifty pounds of Celestial bronze. He took one side of the metal plate and glanced back. Narcissus was nocking an arrow, but it was so old and brittle, it broke into splinters.

“Ow!” he yelled very attractively. “My manicure!”

Normally nymphs were quick—at least the ones at Camp Half-Blood were—but these were burdened with posters, T-shirts, and other Narcissus™ merchandise. The nymphs also weren’t great at working as a team. They kept stumbling over one another, pushing and shoving. Echo made things worse by running among them, tripping and tackling as many as she could. Still, they were closing rapidly.

“Call Arion!” Leo gasped.

“Already did!” Hazel said.

We ran for the beach, made it to the edge of the water and could see the Argo II, but there was no way to get there. It was much too far to swim, even if we hadn’t been toting bronze. I turned. The mob was coming over the dunes, Narcissus in the lead, holding his bow like a band major’s baton. The nymphs had conjured assorted weapons. Some held rocks. Some had wooden clubs wreathed in flowers. A few of the water nymphs had squirt guns—which seemed not quite as terrifying—but the look in their eyes was still murderous.

“Oh, man,” Leo muttered, summoning fire in his free hand. “Straight-up fighting isn’t my thing.”

"I'm more like a distance fighter," I said, pulling the bowstring. “Hold the Celestial bronze and get behind me."

“Get behind me!” Echo repeated. The camouflaged girl was racing ahead of the mob now. She stopped in front of Leo and turned, spreading her arms as if she meant to personally shield him.

“Echo?” Leo said. “You’re one brave nymph.”

“Brave nymph?” Her tone made it a question.

“I’m proud to have you on Team Leo,” he said. “If we survive this, you should forget Narcissus.”

“Forget Narcissus?” she said uncertainly.

“You’re way too good for him.”

The nymphs surrounded us in a semicircle.

“Trickery!” Narcissus said. “They don’t love me, girls! We all love me, don’t we?”

“Yes!” the girls screamed, except for one confused nymph in a yellow dress who squeaked, “Team Leo!”

“Kill them!” Narcissus ordered.

The nymphs surged forward, but the sand in front of them exploded. Arion raced out of nowhere, circling the mob so quickly he created a sandstorm, showering the nymphs in white lime, spraying their eyes.

“I love this horse!” Leo said.

The nymphs collapsed, coughing and gagging. Narcissus stumbled around blindly, swinging his bow like he was trying to hit a piñata. Hazel climbed into the saddle, hoisted up the bronze, and offered Leo a hand. I looked at the sun. It was almost dark. I prayed for my dad while creating the light ropes that was wrapping themselves around the horse's chest.

“We can’t leave Echo!” Leo said.

“Leave Echo,” the nymph repeated. She smiled, and for the first time I could clearly see her face. She really was pretty.

“Why?” Leo asked. “You don’t think you can still save Narcissus…”

“Save Narcissus,” she said confidently. And even though it was only an echo, I could tell that she meant it. She’d been given a second chance at life, and she was determined to use it to save the guy she loved—even if he was a completely hopeless moron.

“Leo, come on!” Hazel called. The other nymphs were starting to recover. They wiped the lime out of their eyes, which were now glowing green with anger. Leo looked for Echo again, but she had dissolved into the scenery.

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, okay.”

He climbed up behind Hazel. Arion took off across the water, I held the ribbons. The nymphs screaming behind them, and Narcissus shouting, “Bring me back! Bring me back!”

As Arion almost reached Argo II, the sun went down completely, and my light ropes disappeared. Which ment that I have fell to the water, screaming.


	4. Chapter 4

Leo, his hair was still greased back, he had welding goggles on his forehead, a lipstick mark on his cheek, tattoos all over his arms, and a T-shirt that read HOT STUFF, BAD BOY, and TEAM LEO, me, wet like a waterfall and leaving water puddles, and Hazel - stumbled to a stop in the doorway, carrying a large sheet of hammered bronze between us, right in front of Jason's cabin. He was awake. I waved at him and he grinned.

“Gods of Olympus.” Piper stared at me and Leo. “What happened to you?”

“Long story,” he said. “Others back?”

“Not yet,” Piper said.

Leo cursed. Then he noticed Jason sitting up, and his face brightened. “Hey, man! Glad you’re better. I’ll be in the engine room.” He ran off with the sheet of bronze, leaving Hazel and me in the doorway, breathing heavily.

Piper raised an eyebrow at her. “Team Leo?”

“We met Narcissus,” Hazel said, which didn’t really explain much. “Also Nemesis, the revenge goddess.”

"And I fell to the lake." I shrugged.

Jason sighed. “I miss all the fun.”

"You better listen to the instructions of your doctor and don't get up until you told so, mr. Grace," Piper laughed.

"Speaking of," I said. "After we'll get out of here I'll be back to check your head again." On the deck above, something went THUMP, as if a heavy creature had landed. Annabeth and Percy came running down the hall. Percy was toting a steaming five-gallon plastic bucket that smelled horrible. Annabeth had a patch of black sticky stuff in her hair. Percy’s shirt was covered in it.

“Roofing tar?” Piper guessed.

Frank stumbled up behind them, which made the hallway pretty jam-packed with demigods. Frank had a big smear of the black sludge down his face.

“Ran into some tar monsters,” Annabeth said. “Hey, Jason, glad you’re awake. Where’s Leo?”

Hazel pointed down. “Engine room.”

Suddenly the entire ship listed to port. The demigods stumbled. Percy almost spilled his bucket of tar. “Uh, what was that?” he demanded.

“Oh…” I looked awkwardly at the son of Posidon. “We may have angered the nymphs who live in this lake." I cleaned my throat. "Like… All of them.”

“Great.” Percy handed the bucket of tar to Frank and Annabeth. “You guys help Leo. I’ll hold off the water spirits as long as I can.”

“On it!” Frank promised.

The three of them ran off, leaving me and Hazel at the cabin door. The ship listed again, and Hazel hugged her stomach like she was going to be sick. “I’ll just…” She swallowed, pointed weakly down the passageway, and ran off.

"I have work to do..." I sighed, running to the sickbay for nausea pills.

Waves crashed against the hull as angry voices came from above deck—Percy shouting, Coach Hedge yelling at the lake. Festus the figurehead breathed fire several times. Down the hall, Hazel moaned miserably in her cabin. I gave her the pill, but it didn't worked as fast as wanted - and Annabeth made me swear to her that I won't use my power's at night. Only for emergency. The engine, when I ran after I gave Hazel the midicine, was in chaos and I could swear that it sounded like we were doing an Irish line dance with anvils tied to our feet. After what seemed like hours, the engine began to hum. The oars creaked and groaned, and I felt the ship lift into the air. The rocking and shaking stopped. The ship became quiet except for the drone of machinery. 

Finally me and Leo emerged from the engine room caked in sweat, lime dust, and tar. I was still wet from the river, while his T-shirt looked like it had been caught in an escalator and chewed to shreds. The TEAM LEO on his chest now read: AM LEO. But he grinned like a madman and announced that we were safely under way.

“Meeting in the mess hall, one hour,” he said. “Crazy day, huh?”

"And it's only the first one..." I let out a laugh.

After everyone had cleaned up, Coach Hedge took the helm and the we gathered below for dinner. It was the first time we'd all sat down together—just the eith of us. Maybe their presence should’ve reassured me, but seeing all of us in one place only reminded me that the Prophecy of Seven was unfolding at last. No more waiting for Leo to finish the ship. No more easy days at Bunker 9 with me trying to convince him to sleep. We were under way, with a bunch of angry Romans behind us and the ancient lands ahead. The giants us be waiting. Gaea was rising. And unless we succeeded in this quest, the world would be destroyed. The others must’ve felt it too. The tension in the mess hall was like an electrical storm brewing, which was totally possible, considering Percy’s and Jason’s powers. In an awkward moment, the two boys tried to sit in the same chair at the head of the table. Sparks literally flew from Jason’s hands. After a brief silent standoff, like they were both thinking 'Seriously, dude?', they ceded the chair to Annabeth and sat at opposite sides of the table. The true queen of this ship. We compared notes on what had happened in Salt Lake City, but even our ridiculous story about how we tricked Narcissus wasn’t enough to cheer up the group.

“So where to now?” Leo asked with a mouthful of pizza. “I did a quick repair job to get us out of the lake, but there’s still a lot of damage. We should really put down again and fix things right before we head across the Atlantic.”

Percy was eating a piece of pie, which was completely blue, making me grin. “We need to put some distance between us and Camp Jupiter,” he said. “Frank spotted some eagles over Salt Lake City. We figure the Romans aren’t far behind us.”

“I don’t suppose we should go back and try to reason with the Romans?" Piper asked. "Maybe—maybe I didn’t try hard enough with the charmspeak.”

Jason took her hand. “It wasn’t your fault, Pipes. Or Leo’s,” he added quickly. “Whatever happened, it was Gaea’s doing, to drive the two camps apart.”

“Maybe if we could explain that, though—”

“With no proof?” Annabeth asked. “And no idea what really happened? I appreciate what you’re saying, Piper. I don’t want the Romans on our bad side, but until we understand what Gaea’s up to, going back is suicide.”

“She’s right,” Hazel said. She still looked a little queasy from seasickness, but she was trying to eat a few saltine crackers. The rim of her plate was embedded with rubies, and I was pretty sure they hadn’t been there at the beginning of the meal. “Reyna might listen, but Octavian won’t. The Romans have honor to think about. They’ve been attacked. They’ll shoot first and ask questions post hac.” I stared at my own dinner. The magical plates could conjure up a very lovely spaghetti meal.

“You’re right,” Piper decided. “We have to keep going. Not just because of the Romans. We have to hurry.”

Hazel nodded. “Nemesis said we have only six days until Nico dies and Rome is destroyed.”

Jason frowned. “You mean Rome Rome, not New Rome?”

Me and Hazel exchanges a look. We talked a little at this hour, while I tried to help her with her nausea. I told her my death story, and shared couple of stories about Nico. "We think so,” I said. “But if so, that’s not much time.”

“Why six days?” Percy wondered. “And how are they going to destroy Rome?”

No one answered. “There’s more,” Piper said. “I’ve been seeing some things in my knife.”

Frank froze with a forkful of spaghetti halfway to his mouth. I appreciated his taste. “Things such as… ?”

“They don’t really make sense,” Piper said, “Just garbled images, but I saw two giants, dressed alike. Maybe twins.”

Annabeth stared at the magical video feed from Camp Half-Blood on the wall. Right now it showed the living room in the Big House: a cozy fire on the hearth and Seymour, the stuffed leopard head, snoring contentedly above the mantel. “Twins, like in Ella’s prophecy,” Annabeth said. “If we could figure out those lines, it might help.”

“Wisdom’s daughter walks alone,” Percy said. “The Mark of Athena burns through Rome. Annabeth, that’s got to mean you. Juno told me…well, she said you had a hard task ahead of you in Rome. She said she doubted you could do it. But I know she’s wrong.”

Annabeth took a long breath. “Reyna was about to tell me something right before the ship fired on us. She said there was an old legend among the Roman praetors—something that had to do with Athena. She said it might be the reason Greeks and Romans could never get along.”

Leo, Hazel and I exchanged nervous looks. “Nemesis mentioned something similar,” Leo said. “She talked about an old score that had to be settled—”

“The one thing that might bring the gods’ two natures into harmony,” Hazel recalled. 

“‘An old wrong finally avenged.’” I quoted. 

Percy drew a frowny face in his blue whipped cream. “I was only a praetor for about two hours. Jason, you ever hear a legend like that?”

“I…uh, I’m not sure,” he said. “I’ll give it some thought.”

Percy narrowed his eyes. “You’re not sure?” But Jason didn’t respond.

Hazel broke the silence. “What about the other lines?” She turned her ruby-encrusted plate. “Twins snuff out the angel’s breath, Who holds the key to endless death.”

“Giants’ bane stands gold and pale,” Frank added, “Won through pain from a woven jail.”

“Giants’ bane,” Leo said. “Anything that’s a giants’ bane is good for us, right? That’s probably what we need to find. If it can help the gods get their schizophrenic act together, that’s good.”

Percy nodded. “We can’t kill the giants without the help of the gods.”

Jason turned to Frank and Hazel. “I thought you guys killed that one giant in Alaska without a god’s help, just the two of you.”

“Alcyoneus was a special case,” Frank said. “He was only immortal in the territory where he was reborn—Alaska. But not in Canada. I wish I could kill all the giants by dragging them across the border from Alaska into Canada, but…” He shrugged. “Percy’s right, we’ll need the gods.”

I gazed at the walls. I really wished Leo hadn’t enchanted them with images of Camp Half-Blood. It was like a doorway to home that I could never go through. I watched the hearth of Hestia burning in the middle of the green as the cabins turned off their lights for curfew. I wondered how the Roman demigods, Frank and Hazel, felt about those images. They’d never even been to Camp Half-Blood. Did it seem alien to them, or unfair that Camp Jupiter wasn’t represented? Did it make them miss their own home? The other lines of the prophecy turned in my mind. What was a woven jail? How could twins snuff out an angel’s breath? The key to endless death didn’t sound very cheerful, either.

“So…” Leo pushed his chair away from the table. “First things first, I guess. We’ll have to put down in the morning to finish repairs.”

“Someplace close to a city,” Annabeth suggested, “In case we need supplies. But somewhere out of the way, so the Romans will have trouble finding us. Any ideas?”

“Well,” Piper ventured, “How do you guys feel about Kansas?”

I had trouble falling asleep. Coach Hedge spent the first hour after curfew doing his nightly duty, walking up and down the passageway yelling, “Lights out! Settle down! Try to sneak out, and I’ll smack you back to Long Island!” He banged his baseball bat against a cabin door whenever he heard a noise, shouting at everyone to go to sleep, which made it impossible for anyone to go to sleep. I figured this was the most fun the satyr had had since he’d pretended to be my gym teacher at the Wilderness School. I stared at the bronze beams on the ceiling. My cabin was pretty cozy. Leo had programmed our quarters to adjust automatically to the occupant’s preferred temperature, so it was never too cold or too hot. The mattress and the pillows were stuffed with pegasus down, so they were über-comfortable. A bronze lantern hung from the ceiling, glowing at whatever brightness I wished. The lantern’s sides were perforated with pinholes, so at night glimmering constellations drifted across her walls. I had so many things on my mind, I thought she’d never sleep. But there was something peaceful about the rocking of the boat and the drone of the aerial oars as we scooped through the sky and finally my eyelids got heavy, and I drifted off. 

It seemed like only a few seconds had passed before I woke to the breakfast bell, groaning. “Yo, Sunshine!” Leo knocked on the door. “We’re landing!”

“Congratulations," I scoffed, pulling my pillow on my head, trying to fall asleep again.

I heard the door opening “You decent?”

“Im sleeping.” I mumbled.

“Hey, Sunshine,” I heard Leo grinning. “The sun is up. Why doesn't the sun of my life either?"

"I just tried to fly in the clouds in my dream."

"Oh, c'mon!" Leo took the pillow off of my head and poked my cheek. "Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up!" 

"Stop." I pulled his hand away, hiding my head under the blanket.

"Oh my god, where's my Sunshine?!" Leo said in dramatically scared voice. "Oh no, she's under the blanket, I-I can't touch her! On ho!" 

"Good." There was quite for a minute, so I thought that Leo gave up and leaved me alone, but then I felt hands wrapping around my waist, as someone grabbed me out of my bad and put me on his shoulder, like I was some bag full of potatoes. "Leo- oh god's, put me down, now!" I shouted, but the guy only laughed. He was surprisingly strong.

"No way Sunshine," Leo said as be went out of my room. "I'll carry you to the mess hall, like a Princess you are."

"I'm pretty sure no Prince ever carried his Princess like this." I said.

"I'm the first, yay!" Leo said, kicking the mess hall door, entering the room. Well, we've got some glares. Leo put me on one of the chairs, and sat next to me.

"Uh... Good morning," Frank said.

"Uh-huh, morning." I mumbled, wrapping up in my blanket. I stared at the empty plate in front of me. I could ask for everything, but instead I fell on it with my face, closing my eyes, as if it was a pillow.

"Ria... Are you okay?" Annabeth asked.

"No," I said. "This devil waked me up without my permission."

"So your not mad at me because I dragged you here?" Leo asked.

"Oh belive me, I will kill you slowly and painfully." I mattered, not moving.

"I haven no idea from where you had the guts to wake her up," Jason said. "I've tried once." I could swear that he rubbed his jaw. Well, what a shame that someone hit it.

"I'm a special boy, yeah, Sunshine?" Leo poked my cheek again and I could hear Percy squeak, as if he was saying goodbye to Leo. But I just smaked the back of his head.

From above, Coach Hedge yelled, “Thar she blows! Kansas, ahoy!”

“Holy Hephaestus,” Leo muttered, jumping from the table. “He really needs to work on his shipspeak. I’d better get above deck.”

I summonded some pies, put one in my mouth, two in my pocket and got to my cabin to change. Then climbed on deck and joined the others as the Argo II settled in the middle of a field of sunflowers. The oars retracted. The gangplank lowered itself. The morning air smelled of irrigation, warm plants, and fertilized earth. Not a bad smell. Percy was the first to notice me and smiled in greeting. He was wearing faded jeans and a fresh orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, as if he’d never been away from the Greek side. The new clothes had probably helped his mood—and of course the fact that he was standing at the rail with his arm around Annabeth. I was happy to see Annabeth with a sparkle in her eyes, because I had never had a better friend, that I could even call an older sister. For months, Annabeth had been tormenting herself, her every waking moment consumed with the search for Percy. Now, despite the dangerous quest they were facing, at least she had her boyfriend back.

“So!” Annabeth plucked the bagel out of Piper’s hand and took a bite. Back at camp, we had a running joke about stealing each other’s breakfast. “Here we are. What’s the plan?”

“I want to check out the highway,” Piper said. “Find the sign that says Topeka 32.”

Leo spun his Wii controller in a circle, the sails lowered themselves and he sneaked his hand in my pocket, stealing one of my pies. Ok I love the joke, but not when people stealing my breakfast. “We shouldn’t be far,” he said. “Festus and I calculated the landing as best we could."

"What do you expect to find at the mile marker?” I asked, tying to get my pie back, while Piper explained what she’d seen in the knife—the man in purple with a goblet. Leo put the pie in his mouth, but I grabbed the tip that was sticking out and it broke in two, leaving the guy with a small piece while I victoriously nibbled my part.

“Purple shirt?” Jason asked. “Vines on his hat? Sounds like Bacchus.”

“Dionysus,” Percy muttered. “If we came all the way to Kansas to see Mr. D—”

“Bacchus isn’t so bad,” Jason said. “I don’t like his followers much.…”

"Even he hates them..." I mumbled.

“But the god himself is okay,” Jason continued. “I did him a favor once up in the wine country.”

Percy looked appalled. “Whatever, man. Maybe he’s better on the Roman side. But why would he be hanging around in Kansas? Didn’t Zeus order the gods to cease all contact with mortals?”

Frank grunted. The big guy was wearing a blue tracksuit this morning, like he was ready to go for a jog in the sunflowers. “The gods haven’t been very good at following that order,” he noted. “Besides, if the gods have gone schizophrenic like Hazel said, then who knows what’s going on with the Olympians? Could be some pretty bad stuff out there.”

“Sounds dangerous!” Leo agreed cheerfully. “Well…you guys have fun. I’ve got to finish repairs on the hull. Coach Hedge is gonna work on the broken crossbows. Alex will see what’s wrong with the external damage. And, uh, Annabeth—I could really use your help. You’re the only other person who even sort of understands engineering.”

Annabeth looked apologetically at Percy. “He’s right. I should stay and help.”

“I’ll come back to you.” He kissed her on the cheek. “Promise.”

Frank slid his bow off his shoulder and propped it against the rail. “I think I should turn into a crow or something and fly around, keep an eye out for Roman eagles.”

“Why a crow?” Leo asked. “Man, if you can turn into a dragon, why don’t you just turn into a dragon every time? That’s the coolest.”

Frank’s face looked like it was being infused with cranberry juice. “That’s like asking why you don’t bench-press your maximum weight every time you lift. Because it’s hard, and you’d hurt yourself. Turning into a dragon isn’t easy.”

“Oh.” Leo nodded. “I wouldn’t know. I don’t lift weights.”

“Yeah. Well, maybe you should consider it, Mr.—”

"And it's an awful disguise. It's easier to spot a dragon then a crow." I said, offering Leo half of the third and last pie that I brought from the mess hall. He took it happily..

“I’ll help you, Frank,” Hazel said. “I can summon Arion and scout around below.”

“Sure,” Frank said, still glaring at Leo. “Yeah, thanks."

Hazel turned to Percy. “Just be careful when you go out there. Lots of fields, lots of crops. Could be karpoi on the loose.”

“Karpoi?” Piper asked.

“Grain spirits,” Hazel said. “You don’t want to meet them.”

“That leaves three of us to check on the mile marker,” Percy said. “Me, Jason, Piper. I’m not psyched about seeing Mr. D again. That guy is a pain. But, Jason, if you’re on better terms with him—”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “If we find him, I’ll talk to him. Piper, it’s your vision. You should take the lead.”

“Of course,” she said, trying to sound upbeat. “Let’s find the highway.”

I did everything like Leo said; checked the external damage, did everything like he taught me, and now I was sitting in the middle of the field, looking at the sky. The sunflower's were huge, when I stood up they covered me completely, so now I was resting in their shadows with leg's crossed, and a head thrown back. Everything was silent and piecefull. And then I heard a familiar horse. I jumped on my feet and ran out of the field towards the ship. And was a little surprised when I saw Piper came back on a Blackjack with two unconscious demigods. I ran to the deck and then to the sickbay, to prepare everything, while Frank and Hazel tended to Blackjack, Annabeth and Leo helped get Piper and the boys to me.

“At this rate, we’re going to run out of ambrosia,” Coach Hedge grumbled as I tended their wounds. “How come I never get invited on these violent trips?”

"Because I can't use ambrosia on you," I said. "And you may turn to a little lovely cactus."

"Hey, don't underestimate me, cupcake!"

Piper sat at Jason’s side. “Leo,” she said, “Are we ready to sail?”

“Yeah, but—”

“Set course for Atlanta. I’ll explain later.”

“But…okay.” He hurried off.

Annabeth didn’t argue with Piper either. She was too busy looking at me while I was examining the horseshoe-shaped dent on the back of Percy’s head.

“What hit him?” I demanded.

“Blackjack,” Piper said.

“What?” me and Annabeth asked.

Piper tried to explain while I was sitting between the boys with my hands on their heads. I improved my healing skills through this 6 months, so when Piper finished, both of the boys groaned and opened their eyes. Within a few minutes, Jason and Percy were sitting up in their berths and able to talk in complete sentences. Both had fuzzy memories of what had happened. When Piper described their duel on the highway, Jason winced.

“Knocked out twice in two days,” he muttered. “Some demigod.” He glanced sheepishly at Percy. “Sorry, man. I didn’t mean to blast you.”

Percy’s shirt was peppered with burn holes. His hair was even more disheveled than normal. Despite that, he managed a weak laugh. “Not the first time. Your big sister got me good once at camp.”

“Yeah, but…I could have killed you.”

“Or I could have killed you,” Percy said.

Jason shrugged. “If there’d been an ocean in Kansas, maybe.”

“I don’t need an ocean—”

"I can kill you right now," I said, rubbing my nose. "At real time. Of you won't shut up."

“Yeah,” Annabeth agreed, “I’m sure you both would’ve been wonderful at killing each other. But right now, you need some rest.”

“Food first,” Percy said. “Please? And we really need to talk. Bacchus said some things that don’t—”

“Bacchus?” Annabeth raised her hand. “Okay, fine. We need to talk. Mess hall. Ten minutes. I’ll tell the others. And please, Percy…change your clothes. You smell like you’ve been run over by an electric horse.”

Leo gave the helm to Coach Hedge again, after making the satyr promise he would not steer them to the nearest military base “for fun.” We gathered around the dining table, and Piper explained what had happened at TOPEKA 32—their conversation with Bacchus, the trap sprung by Gaea, the eidolons that had possessed the boys.

“Of course!” I slapped the table, almost jumping from my seat, which startled Frank so much, he dropped his burrito. “That’s what happened to Leo too! That's why his voice was so strange!"

“So it wasn’t my fault.” Leo exhaled. “I didn’t start World War Three. I just got possessed by an evil spirit. That’s a relief!”

“But the Romans don’t know that,” Annabeth said. “And why would they take our word for it?”

“We could contact Reyna,” Jason suggested. “She would believe us.”

Jason turned to her with a hopeful gleam in his eyes. “You could convince her, Pipes. I know you could.” Annabeth looked at her sympathetically, as if to say: Boys are so clueless. I shrugged, smiling slightly. Even Hazel winced. 

“I could try,” Piper said halfheartedly. “But Octavian is the one we have to worry about. In my dagger blade, I saw him taking control of the Roman crowd. I’m not sure Reyna can stop him.”

Hazel and Frank—nodded in agreement. “She’s right,” Frank said. “This afternoon when we were scouting, we saw eagles again. They were a long way off, but closing fast. Octavian is on the warpath.”

Hazel grimaced. “This is exactly the sort of opportunity Octavian has always wanted. He’ll try to seize power. If Reyna objects, he’ll say she’s soft on the Greeks. As for those eagles…It’s like they could smell us.”

“They can,” Jason said. “Roman eagles can hunt demigods by their magical scent even better than monsters can. This ship might conceal us somewhat, but not completely—not from them.”

Leo drummed his fingers. “Great. I should have installed a smoke screen that makes the ship smell like a giant chicken nugget. Remind me to invent that, next time.”

"I want one to my room..." I mumbled.

Hazel frowned. “What is a chicken nugget?”

“Oh, man…” Leo shook his head in amazement. “That’s right. You’ve missed the last like, seventy years. Well, my apprentice, a chicken nugget—”

“Doesn’t matter,” Annabeth interrupted. “The point is, we’ll have a hard time explaining the truth to the Romans. Even if they believe us—”

“You’re right.” Jason leaned forward. “We should just keep going. Once we’re over the Atlantic, we’ll be safe—at least from the legion.”

“How can you be sure?” Piper asked. 

“Why wouldn’t they follow us?” I frowned.

Jason shook his head. “You heard Reyna talking about the ancient lands. They’re much too dangerous. Roman demigods have been forbidden to go there for generations. Even Octavian couldn’t get around that rule.”

Frank swallowed a bite of burrito like it had turned to cardboard in his mouth. “So, if we go there…”

“We’ll be outlaws as well as traitors,” Jason confirmed. “Any Roman demigod would have the right to kill us on sight. But I wouldn’t worry about that. If we get across the Atlantic, they’ll give up on chasing us. They’ll assume that we’ll die in the Mediterranean—the Mare Nostrum.”

Percy pointed his pizza slice at Jason. “You, sir, are a ray of sunshine.” Jason didn’t argue. Everyone stared at their plates, except for Percy, who continued to enjoy his pizza, and me, through I stopped chewing my pies. Today I had a thing for pies, what can I say.

“So let’s plan ahead,” Percy suggested, “And make sure we don’t die. Mr. D—Bacchus— Ugh, do I have to call him Mr. B now? Anyway, he mentioned the twins in Ella’s prophecy. Two giants. Otis and, uh, something that started with an F?”

“Ephialtes,” Jason said.

“Twin giants, like Piper saw in her blade…” Annabeth ran her finger along the rim of her cup. “I remember a story about twin giants. They tried to reach Mount Olympus by piling up a bunch of mountains.”

Frank nearly choked. “Well, that’s great. Giants who can use mountains like building blocks. And you say Bacchus killed these guys with a pinecone on a stick?”

“Something like that,” Percy said. “I don’t think we should count on his help this time. He wanted a tribute, and he made it pretty clear it would be a tribute we couldn’t handle.”

Silence fell around the table. I could hear Coach Hedge above deck singing “Blow the Man Down,” except he didn’t know the lyrics, so he mostly sang. “Blah-blah-hum-de-dum-dum.”

“She wants two of us,” Piper murmured. We turned to look at her. “Today on the highway,” she said, “Gaea told me that she needed the blood of only two demigods—one female, one male. She—she asked me to choose which boy would die.”

Jason squeezed her hand. “But neither of us died. You saved us.”

“I know. It’s just…Why would she want that?”

Leo whistled softly. “Guys, remember at the Wolf House? Our favorite ice princess, Khione? She talked about spilling Jason’s blood, how it would taint the place for generations. Maybe demigod blood has some kind of power.”

"And before that, our giant Enchilada tried to kill me and Jason," I said, frowning. "I don't know if it's connected, but..."

"But he didn't tried to use your blood," Leo said, like it was a regular topic. "He threw you away like a baseball."

"Don't remind me, please." I shuddered.

“Oh…” Percy set down his third pizza slice. He leaned back and stared at nothing, as if the horse kick to his head had just now registered.

“Percy?” Annabeth gripped his arm.

“Oh, bad,” he muttered. “Bad. Bad.” He looked across the table at Frank and Hazel. “You guys remember Polybotes?”

“The giant who invaded Camp Jupiter,” Hazel said. “The anti-Poseidon you whacked in the head with a Terminus statue. Yes, I think I remember.”

“I had a dream,” Percy said, “When we were flying to Alaska. Polybotes was talking to the gorgons, and he said—he said he wanted me taken prisoner, not killed. He said: ‘I want that one chained at my feet, so I can kill him when the time is ripe. His blood shall water the stones of Mount Olympus and wake Earth Mother!’”

I wondered if the room’s temperature controls were broken, because suddenly I couldn’t stop shaking. “You think the giants would use our blood…the blood of two of us—”

“I don’t know,” Percy said. “But until we figure it out, I suggest we all try to avoid getting captured.”

Jason grunted. “That I agree with.”

“But how do we figure it out?” Hazel asked. “The Mark of Athena, the twins, Ella’s prophecy…how does it all fit together?”

Annabeth pressed her hands against the edge of the table. “Piper, you told Leo to set our course for Atlanta.”

“Right,” Piper said. “Bacchus told us we should seek out…what was his name?”

“Phorcys,” Percy said.

Annabeth looked surprised, like she wasn’t used to her boyfriend having the answers. “You know him?”

Percy shrugged. “I didn’t recognize the name at first. Then Bacchus mentioned salt water, and it rang a bell. Phorcys is an old sea god from before my dad’s time. Never met him, but supposedly he’s a son of Gaea. I still don’t understand what a sea god would be doing in Atlanta.”

Leo snorted. “What’s a wine god doing in Kansas? Gods are weird. Anyway, we should reach Atlanta by noon tomorrow, unless something else goes wrong.”

“Don’t even say that,” I muttered. 

“It’s getting late. We should all get some sleep.” Annabeth said.

“Wait,” Piper said. Once more, everyone looked at her. “There’s one last thing,” she said. “The eidolons—the possessing spirits. They’re still here, in this room.” When she was done explaining, the others looked at her uncomfortably. Up on deck, Hedge sang something that sounded like 'In the Navy' while Blackjack stomped his hooves, whinnying in protest.

Finally Hazel exhaled. “Piper is right.”

“How can you be sure?” I asked.

“I’ve met eidolons,” Hazel said. “In the Underworld, when I was…you know.”

“So…” Frank rubbed his hand across his buzz-cut hair as if some ghosts might have invaded his scalp. “You think these things are lurking on the ship, or—”

“Possibly lurking inside some of us?” I asked.

“We don’t know.” Piper admitted.

Jason clenched his fist. “If that’s true—”

“We have to take steps,” Piper said. “I think I can do this.”

“Do what?” Percy asked.

“Just listen, okay?” Piper took a deep breath. “Everybody listen.” Piper met our eyes, one person at a time. “Eidolons,” she said, using her charmspeak, “raise your hands.”

There was tense silence. Leo laughed nervously. “Did you really think that was going to—?” His voice died. His face went slack. He raised his hand. Jason and Percy did the same. Their eyes had turned glassy and gold. Hazel caught her breath. Next to Leo, Frank scrambled out of his chair and put his back against the wall, while I just froze looking at Leo with worry.

“Oh, gods.” Annabeth looked at me imploringly. “Can you cure them?”

I took a shaky breath and looked at her, and then on Piper. "I don't-..." I cleaned my throat, "I can support you with the... You know, singing stuff, but I can do it myself."

Piper looked scared, but she took a deep breath and nodded. Then she looked at Leo, while I closed my eyes and started humming some stupid lyrics and some show theme's. It was one of my power's that I found out about only this winter, at the quest. I could charm-sing. But it wasn't as strong as Pipers ability, so usually I was the one who supports her, while she was doing the cool stuff. And I was completely fine with it, since I wasn't so good with talking to strange people... “Are there more of you on this ship?” Piper asked.

“No,” Leo said in a hollow voice, and I shuddered. This was what I heard then, back at Camp Jupiter. “The Earth Mother sent three. The strongest, the best. We will live again.”

“Not here, you won’t,” Piper growled. “All three of you, listen carefully." Jason and Percy turned toward her. Those gold eyes were unnerving, but seeing all three boys like that fueled Piper’s anger. “You will leave those bodies,” she commanded.

“No,” Percy said. I frowned, and started to hum the Harry Potter theme, something I could do for hour's.

Leo let out a soft hiss. “We must live.”

Frank fumbled for his bow. “Mars Almighty, that’s creepy! Get out of here, spirits! Leave our friends alone!”

I immediately opened my eyes, still singing, and waved my hands as if saying; 'No!'. But Leo turned toward him. “You cannot command us, child of war. Your own life is fragile. Your soul could burn at any moment.”

I wasn’t sure what that meant, but Frank staggered like he’d been punched in the gut. He drew an arrow, his hands shaking. “I—I’ve faced down worse things than you. If you want a fight—”

“Frank, don’t!” I jumped from my seat, stopping my humming session. Jason drew his sword.

“Stop!” Piper ordered, but her voice quavered.

“Listen to Piper.” I pointed at Jason’s sword. A string of light flew into the mess hall. Jasons sword clunked to the table and Jason sank back into his chair.

Percy growled in a very un-Percy-like way. “Daughter of Apollo, you may control light, but you do not control the dead.”

Annabeth reached toward him as if to restrain him, but I waved her off. “Listen, eidolons,” I snapped. “You do not belong here. I may not command you, but Pipes does. Obey her.” I turned toward Piper, my expression clear: Try again. You can do this.

Piper looked straight at Jason—straight into the eyes of the thing that was controlling him. “You will leave those bodies,” Piper repeated, even more forcefully.

Jason’s face tightened. His forehead beaded with sweat. “We—we will leave these bodies.”

“You will vow on the River Styx never to return to this ship,” Piper continued, “And never to possess any member of this crew.” Leo and Percy both hissed in protest. “You will promise on the River Styx,” Piper insisted.

A moment of tension—she could feel their wills fighting against hers. Then all three eidolons spoke in unison: “We promise on the River Styx.”

“You are dead,” Piper said.

“We are dead,” they agreed.

“Now, leave.”

All three boys slumped forward. Percy fell face-first into his pizza.

“Percy!” Annabeth grabbed him.

Piper and Hazel caught Jason’s arms as he slipped out of his chair.

Leo wasn’t so lucky. He fell toward Frank, who made no attempt to intercept him. I tried to so, but I didn't know he had so much weight, so we hit the floor together.

"Shit..." I mumbled.

“Ow!” he groaned.

“Are you all right?” I asked and removed the piece of spaghetti in the shape of a 3 that stuck to his forehead. He nodded.

"I think that I'm fine." Leo pulled himself up, and offered me his hand. "Did it work?” he asked, when we both stood up on our feet.

“It worked,” Piper said. “I don’t think they’ll be back.”

Jason blinked. “Does that mean I can stop getting head injuries now?”

"Oh, I hope so!" I laughed, exhaling all my nervousness. 

“Come on, Lightning Boy." Piper said. "Let’s get you some fresh air.”

Piper and Jason walked back and forth along the deck. Leo and I stood at the helm. Leo was conferring with Festus through the intercom. Since the satellite TV was up again, Coach Hedge was in his cabin happily catching up on his mixed martial arts cage matches. Blackjack had flown off somewhere. The others were settling in for the night. The Argo II raced east, cruising several hundred feet above the ground. Below us small towns passed by like lit-up islands in a dark sea of prairie. I remembered last winter, flying Festus the dragon over the city of Quebec. I am still afraid of heights, but I learned to trust Festus, and now I was learning to trust Argo II. The night was warm. The ship sailed along more smoothly than a dragon.

"Hey," Leo called me. 

I turned to face him, "Hm?"

"Why-..." Leo seemed nervous a little. "Why did Nemesis called you Sunshine?" 

"Oh..." I rubbed the back of my head. "Well, my mom used to call me that when I was a kid." I smiled, sadly. "She was always finishing her sentences with 'Sunshine'. It was like our inside joke."

Leo looked at me. He let go of the helm with one of his hands, and took one of mine. He squeezed it carefully; "Is that... Why you don't like when I call you that? If it bothers you or maybe makes you uncomfortable I can stop, it's not a-..."

"I like it when you call me Sunshine. Now I like it." I said, looking him in the eye's with a smile. "And I don't want you to stop doing that." Leo's eye's were sparkling like the stars, his curly hair was messy and I wanted to land my hand on it and touch it. But the most, I wanted to hug him. And I did; I wrapped my arms around his torso, squeezing him slightly and sobbed quietly. "I... It's...." I mumbled into Leo's chest. "I'm just..."

"It's ok," Leo smiled at me warmly. "As I said, you don't have to be strong all the time."


	5. Chapter 5

'Well, how was Valentine's day?' mom asked, landing next to me at the kitchen table, strangely smiling.

'Like any other unremarkable day.' I shrugged. 'Some boys were so scared of the female half of the class that they brought almost everyone a chocolate bar.'

'You, too?' the grin on her lips widened.

'No, they ran to me for a place to hide.' I chuckled.

'And that not even one valentine?'

'No, why do I need it?' I laughed. 'All these love things just get in the way.'

"Well, this is what you say so far.' the grin on the face of mother still did not disappear, even when she said this phrase, getting up from the table... 

"Good morning, soldier!" I heard a voice and jumped out of my bed. "Well that was a fast one." Leo stood in the middle my room with his arm's crossed.

"Don't scare me like that ever again." I said and pushed Leo away from my cabin with a yawn.

"Uh-huh, I know you want your beauty sleep Sun, but Percy and Annabeth disappeared."

"What?!" I snapped out of my sleepy thoughts. They couldn't just disappear. "You searched for them...?"

"Hedge said to wake you up and go check the sickbay."

"Fine, fine, fine, I'm awake, now let's go-...!"

When we finally gathered in the mess hall, Frank looked afraid as hell. Jason and Piper were mostly relieved. Leo couldn’t stop grinning and muttering, “Classic. Classic." I was leaning on his shoulder, snoring. Only Hazel seemed scandalized, maybe because she was from the 1940s. She kept fanning her face and wouldn’t meet Percy’s eyes. Naturally, Coach Hedge went ballistic; but I found it hard to take the satyr seriously since he was barely five feet tall.

“Never in my life!” Coach bellowed, waving his bat and knocking over a plate of apples. “Against the rules! Irresponsible!”

“Coach,” Annabeth said, “It was an accident. We were talking, and we fell asleep.”

“Besides,” Percy said, “You’re starting to sound like Terminus.”

Hedge narrowed his eyes. “Is that an insult, Jackson? ’Cause I’ll—I’ll terminus you, buddy!” I thought that Percy deserved a medal or something - because me and Leo was already laughing while he stood with a straight face.

"It won’t happen again, Coach. I promise. Now, don’t we have other things to discuss?”

Hedge fumed. “Fine! But I’m watching you, Jackson. And you, Annabeth Chase, I thought you had more sense—”

Jason cleared his throat. “So grab some food, everybody. Let’s get started.”

The meeting was like a war council with donuts. Then again, back at Camp Half-Blood we used to have our most serious discussions around the Ping-Pong table in the rec room with crackers and Cheez Whiz, so I felt at home. Percy told us about his dream—the twin giants planning a reception for them in an underground parking lot with rocket launchers; Nico di Angelo trapped in a bronze jar, slowly dying from asphyxiation with pomegranate seeds at his feet.

Hazel choked back a sob. “Nico… Oh, gods. The seeds.”

“You know what they are?” I asked.

Hazel nodded. “He showed them to me once. They’re from our stepmother’s garden.”

“Your step… oh,” Percy said. “You mean Persephone."

“The seeds are a last-resort food,” Hazel said. I could tell she was nervous, because all the silverware on the table was starting to move toward her. “Only children of Hades can eat them. Nico always kept some in case he got stuck somewhere. But if he’s really imprisoned—”

“The giants are trying to lure us,” Annabeth said. “They’re assuming we’ll try to rescue him.”

“Well, they’re right!” I snorted, crossing my legs, leaning back in my chair.

"Won’t we?” Hazel looked around the table, her confidence apparently crumbling.

“Yes!” Coach Hedge yelled with a mouthful of napkins. “It’ll involve fighting, right?”

“Hazel, of course we’ll help him,” Frank said. “But how long do we have before… uh, I mean, how long can Nico hold out?”

“One seed a day,” Hazel said miserably. “That’s if he puts himself in a death trance.”

“A death trance?” Annabeth scowled. 

“That doesn’t sound fun.” I mumbled.

“It keeps him from consuming all his air,” Hazel said. “Like hibernation, or a coma. One seed can sustain him one day, barely.”

“And he has five seeds left,” Percy said. “That’s five days, including today. The giants must have planned it that way, so we’d have to arrive by July first. Assuming Nico is hidden somewhere in Rome—”

“That’s not much time,” Piper summed up. She put her hand on Hazel’s shoulder. “We’ll find him." 

"At least we know what the lines of the prophecy mean now."I sighed. "'Twins snuff out the angel’s breath, who holds the key to endless death.’ Nico's last name: di Angelo. Angelo is Italian for ‘angel.’”

“Oh, gods,” Hazel muttered. “Nico…”

“We’ll rescue him,” Percy promised her. “We have to. The prophecy says he holds the key to endless death.”

“That’s right,” I said encouragingly.

“Hazel, your brother went searching for the Doors of Death in the Underworld, right? He must’ve found them.” Piper said.

“He can tell us where the doors are,” Percy said, “And how to close them.”

Hazel took a deep breath. “Yes. Good.”

“Uh…” Leo shifted in his chair. “One thing. The giants are expecting us to do this, right? So we’re walking into a trap?”

"What do you mean by that?" I asked cautiously, squinting slightly, ready to smack this idiot in the head or anything.

“Don’t get me wrong. It’s just that your brother, Nico… he knew about both camps, right?”

“Well, yes,” Hazel said.

“He’s been going back and forth,” Leo said, “And he didn’t tell either side.”

Jason sat forward, his expression grim. “You’re wondering if we can trust the guy. So am I.” In all honesty, over the past six months, I've never felt like giving my cousin a hit on the head. Yes, of course, they didn't know Nico, they didn't know that he helped convince Hades himself to help the gods defeat Kronos, they didn't know that he was one of the bravest people in this fucking land... I wanted to growl at them, shout out a curse, take the club from Hedge trainer and set their brains in place, but I remained sitting still, only squeezing the back of the chair. Hazel shot to her feet. “I don’t believe this. He’s my brother. He brought me back from the Underworld, and you don’t want to help him?”

Frank put his hand on her shoulder. “Nobody’s saying that.” He glared at Leo. “Nobody had better be saying that.”

Leo blinked. “Look, guys. All I mean is—”

“Hazel,” Jason said. I saw Levesque's hands shaking. Well, I myself was no better; the knuckles on my hands turned white from the force with which I gripped the wooden appliance of the furniture. “Leo is raising a fair point. I remember Nico from Camp Jupiter. Now I find out he also visited Camp Half-Blood. That does strike me as… well, a little shady. Do we really know where his loyalties lie? We just have to be careful....” Honestly, I didn't want to hear that. At first you try, do good even when no one expects it from you, and then the geniuses of strategic thought, who do not know you, question all your actions... The only thing I had enough strength for- is leave. I just let go of the chair and left the cabin, even not noticing the fact that my chair overturned. Nico has less than five days left, and they still thinking...

I woke up on the bow of the ship next to Festus, from the grinding sound produced by him. I still had a very poor command of Morse code, but I could understand the word "landing".

“Another landing…” I muttered, rubbing my eye with my fist.

'Hey, Sunshine, give me a screwdriver!' Leo shouted, straightening his welding goggles with his hands dirty with engine oil and soot.

'Which one?' I asked, rising from the floor of the still unfinished Argo II, going to the toolbox. 'There are a lot of them.'

'Well, the one with the red handle.' waved his hand, Valdes.

'Ok-ay' I held out, giving the guy the right tool.

“If you seriously want to learn Morse code, you must practice." shouted Valdes from the quarterdeck, standing next to the helm. Festus' head, like his neck, was attached to the bow of the ship, which meant that I was now perched on the bronze neck of a dragon about one and a half meters in diameter, while a green hill stretched below. We stopped, so I wasn't exactly terrified like if we we're flying.

"I'm practicing..." I said quietly, not even trying to let the guy hear me. I understood that he wanted to develop a conversation, maybe even apologize, but my mood wasn't...

"Do you want to take a break for lunch...?" I shuddered, sharply turning around, frightened by an unexpectedly close voice.

"Leo, gods, don't scare me like that!" I breathed, calming down.

"Wow, you called me by name." The guy chuckled, crossing his arms and grinning. "This is a rare occurrence."

"What do you mean?" I asked, throwing both legs to the right side so that I did not have to turn 180 degrees to look into the face of Leo, who was standing at the railing next to the place into which Festus was built, leaning against them. "I often call you by the name... but not when I'm mad at you."

"So you're not mad at me anymore?" Valdez grinned even wider.

"Huh, funny. Do you still find Nico untrustworthy?" I said, turning away from the guy, looking at the blue sky above us.

“Listen…” Leo sighed and it seemed to me that something new sounded in his voice, which I hadn’t heard in those six months that he was in Camp. “I… Forgive me, please, okay?" and at that moment I froze for a second, slowly turning my head towards the son of Hephaestus.

"Did you just apologize?" yes, for the record, Valdez never apologized to me. For all six months, not a single "sorry", and then there is even "please"...

"I can apologize again, if then you will forgive."

"Are you ready to apologize two whole times so that I forgive you?" I laughed a little, shaking my head.

"I can apologize even nine times, Alex, forgive me...!" Valdez looked at me and something jumped in my stomach. He really apologized for his words.

"Wow. You called me by name." I grinned, crossing my arms, parodying Leo, hoping he would take it as a good gesture. "You really need me, eh, mr. Bad boy supreme?"

"Well, of course, who else can I have fun with over these love doves?" asked Leo, giving me his hand, helping me to get off the neck of Festus, quickly dragging me across the entire deck to the stairs to the belowdecks. And yet I sometimes get angry with myself for the fact that it is impossible to be angry with this idiot for a long time.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, already smiling with might and main. My stomach suddenly let out a roar that made me flinch slightly. It’s so good that Leo came up with this brilliant idea ...

"About everything." Leo drawled in an overly dramatic whisper, making me chortle. And then the door of the refectory opened abruptly, almost hitting me in the face.

"Holy hedgehogs ...!" I screamed, taking a step back, inhaling deeply. "Maybe it's enough to scare me today ?!"

"Oh, Alex, how..." Piper began to say, stopping in the middle. "Oh, I see, you made up..." a slight, but still very suspicious, grin appeared on her face, so I quickly glanced where she looked a second ago and found Leo's and my hands intertwined. A moment passed and we were already sitting on opposite sides of Jason and Piper. Thanks to my improved mood, making peace with the first one was even easier than with Leo, because he didn't even have to tempt me with lunch.

"Let's take off! Let's take off!" Frank shouted, arriving with Percy and the coach from Atlanta, and Leo, Piper and Jason and I ran out of the wardroom to the deck where Annabeth and Hazel were already there.

“What? What?” Leo cried, holding a half-eaten grilled cheese sandwich. “Can’t a guy even take a lunch break? What’s wrong?”

“Followed!” Frank yelled again.

“Followed by what?” Jason asked.

“I don’t know!” Frank panted. “Whales? Sea monsters? Maybe Kate and Porky!”

“That makes absolutely no sense." Annabeth said. "Leo, you’d better get us out of here.”

Leo put his sandwich between his teeth, pirate style, and ran for the helm. Soon the Argo II was rising into the sky. I manned the aft crossbow. I saw no sign of pursuit by whales or otherwise, but Percy, Frank, and Hedge didn’t start to recover until the Atlanta skyline was a hazy smudge in the distance. Then they told about what they had learned. That is, nothing. Except that we needed Charleston.

Jason shrugged. “Well…I can think of two places in Charleston we might search. The museum where they keep the submarine Hunley—that’s one of them. It has a lot of relics from the Civil War. A map could be hidden in one. I know the layout. I could lead a team inside.”

“I’ll go,” Leo said. “That sounds cool.”

Jason nodded. He turned to Frank, who was trying to pull his fingers out of the Chinese handcuffs. “You should come too, Frank. We might need you.”

Frank looked surprised. “Why? Not like I was much good at that aquarium.”

“You did fine,” Percy assured him. “It took all three of us to break that glass.”

“Besides, you’re a child of Mars,” Jason said. “The ghosts of defeated causes are bound to serve you. And the museum in Charleston has plenty of Confederate ghosts. We’ll need you to keep them in line.”

Frank gulped. I remembered Percy’s comment about Frank turning into a giant goldfish, and I resisted the urge to smile. I would never be able to look at the big guy again without seeing him as a koi. Poor Frank. “Okay.” Frank relented. “Sure.” He frowned at his fingers, trying to pull them out of the trap. “Uh, how do you—?”

Leo chuckled. “Man, you’ve never seen those before? There’s a simple trick to getting out.”

Frank tugged again with no luck. Even Hazel was trying not to laugh. Ohh, betrayal. Frank grimaced with concentration. Suddenly, he disappeared. On the deck where he’d been standing, a green iguana crouched next to an empty set of Chinese handcuffs.

“Well done, Frank Zhang,” Leo said dryly, doing his impression of Chiron the centaur, making me laugh so hard I doubled over. “That is exactly how people beat Chinese handcuffs. They turn into iguanas.”

Everybody busted out laughing. Frank turned back to human, picked up the handcuffs, and shoved them in his backpack. He managed an embarrassed smile. “Anyway,” Frank said, clearly anxious to change the subject. “The museum is one place to search. But, uh, Jason, you said there were two?”

Jason’s smile faded. Whatever he was thinking about, I could tell it wasn’t pleasant. “Yeah,” he said. “The other place is called the Battery—it’s a park right by the harbor. The last time I was there…with Reyna…” He glanced at Piper, then rushed on. “We saw something in the park. A ghost or some sort of spirit, like a Southern belle from the Civil War, glowing and floating along. We tried to approach it, but it disappeared whenever we got close. Then Reyna had this feeling—she said she should try it alone. Like maybe it would only talk to a girl. She went up to the spirit by herself, and sure enough, it spoke to her.”

Everyone waited. “What did it say?” Annabeth asked.

“Reyna wouldn’t tell me,” Jason admitted. “But it must have been important. She seemed…shaken up. Maybe she got a prophecy or some bad news. Reyna never acted the same around me after that.” After our experience with the eidolons, I didn’t like the idea of approaching a ghost, especially one that changed people with bad news or prophecies. On the other hand, knowledge was the most powerful weapon we could get now.

“A girls’ adventure, then,” Annabeth said. “Piper, Ria and Hazel can come with me.”

We nodded, though Hazel looked nervous. No doubt her time in the Underworld had given her enough ghost experiences for two lifetimes. Piper’s eyes flashed defiantly, like anything Reyna could do, she could do. And me? Eh, I was just hoping there won't be some heights.

“So that’s settled.” Annabeth turned to Leo, who was studying his console, listening to Festus creak and click over the intercom. “Leo, how long until we reach Charleston?”

“Good question,” he muttered. “Festus just detected a large group of eagles behind us—long-range radar, still not in sight.” I mattered some curses and leaned over the console

"Are you sure they’re Roman?” Piper asked.

Leo rolled his eyes. “No, Pipes. It could be a random group of giant eagles flying in perfect formation. Of course they’re Roman! I suppose we could turn the ship around and fight—”

“Which would be a very bad idea,” Jason said, “And remove any doubt that we’re enemies of Rome.”

"I could I can bend light around the ship and blind them, for a while... That would put them out of action..." I listened to my stomach, which periodically told me the state of my powers... The desire to vomit was, obviously, not a very good sign...

“There are more and more of them, and your powers is already at the limit, so I’ve got another idea,” Leo said. “If we went straight to Charleston, we could be there in a few hours. But the eagles would overtake us, and things would get complicated. Instead, we could send out a decoy to trick the eagles. We take the ship on a detour, go the long way to Charleston, and get there tomorrow morning—”

I opened my mouth, but Leo raised his hand. “I know, I know. Nico’s in trouble and we have to hurry.”

“It’s June twenty-seventh,” Hazel said. “After today, four more days. Then he dies.”

“I know! But this might throw the Romans off our trail. We still should have enough time to reach Rome.”

Hazel scowled. “When you say should have enough…”

I sighed. “He means barely enough.”

Hazel put her face in her hands for a count of three. “Sounds about typical for us.”

Annabeth decided to take that as a green light. “Okay, Leo. What kind of decoy are we talking about?”

“I’m so glad you asked!” He punched a few buttons on the console, rotated the turntable, and repeatedly pressed the A button on his Wii controller really, really fast. He called into the intercom, “Buford? Report for duty, please.”

Frank took a step back. “There’s somebody else on the ship? Who is Buford?”

A puff of steam shot from the stairwell, and Leo’s automatic table climbed on deck. I hadn’t seen much of Buford during the trip. He mostly stayed in the engine room, were I was going only if Leo asked me to, or if he was sitting there for awhile like in Bunker 9. He was a three-legged table with a mahogany top. His bronze base had several drawers, spinning gears, and a set of steam vents. Buford was toting a bag like a mail sack tied to one of his legs. He clattered to the helm and made a sound like a train whistle.

“This is Buford,” Leo announced.

“You name your furniture?” Frank asked.

Leo snorted. “Man, you just wish you had furniture this cool. Buford, are you ready for Operation End Table?”

"Oh for dad's sake, you were serious?" I mumbled as I saw how Buford spewed steam. He stepped to the railing. His mahogany top split into four pie slices, which elongated into wooden blades. The blades spun, and Buford took off. "If my top is there..."

"Believe me, the last thing I'll do, is search for your not fresh tops." Leo said in a very serious tone, not loud enough for anyone to hear him.

“A helicopter table,” Percy muttered. “Gotta admit, that’s cool. What’s in the bag?”

“Dirty demigod laundry,” Leo said. “I hope you don’t mind, Frank.”

Frank choked. “What?”

“It’ll throw the eagles off our scent.”

“Those were my only extra pants!”

Leo shrugged. “I asked Buford to get them laundered and folded while he’s out. Hopefully he will.” He rubbed his hands and grinned. “Well! I call that a good day’s work. I’m gonna calculate our detour route now. See you all at dinner!”

When everyone had dispersed, and Leo had time to calibrate the radar in order to track down Buford's most accurate signal, go to the engine room and still chew on his sandwich, I still stood, bent over the console. When I was distracted from observing the points on the radar, the sun was already approaching the horizon.

"Woke up?" Leo asked, sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, while sheets, maps and obscure marks on the wooden floor were scattered around him.

"How long did I stand here?" I sighed, going up to the guy, flopping down next to him.

"I'm not the one to ask." Valdez grunted. And he was right. Thanks to the ADHD that most demigods suffered from, he could sit for hours in bunker number 9, studying all the notes, drawings and sketches left there by the children of Hephaestus, without feeling the time. Only he had to fiddle with something all the time or pace up and down until his strength ran out and he wanted to calm down. But I have a different case. I could just freeze in one position, not thinking about anything. Just like a dreamless dream. "Judging by the fact that it's already sunset, two hours have passed for sure."

"I hate this feeling." I growled, starting to study Leo's notes on the next route.

"What exactly?" asked the boy, rereading the report of Festus about the area over which we could fly.

"When I turn off like this." I put the notebook aside, sighing deeply, resting my chin on my fist, resting my elbow on my knee. "I feel like I'm disappearing, or I have blackouts. I hate it."

"Well, you are special one, Sunshine, aren't you used to it yet?" Leo chuckled, looking up at me for a second.

"Special?" I raised an eyebrow. "How do you want me to understand this, Valdez?"

“Well, I personally don't know many people who can control the light or make ot solid." Leo shrugged. "Or someone who could make Coach Hedge call him Sun."

"Pft, I forgot about this one." I laughed.

"Oh, how could you?!" Leo said dramatically. "My one hundred percent hot soul is offended."

"Thalia would say that my father is the only one hundred percent hot person alive."

"What, even hotter than me?"

"I quote: 'Just touch him and steam will go straight away'"

"I can do that too. If you want, I can set my hand on fire." the guy set his index finger on fire, slowly moving it to my shoulder.

"Leo." zero reaction. "Leo damn it!" now on his face was a crazy grin. Eidolon didn't return to him or anything...? "Damn, don't even think about it...! " I jumped, starting to run across the deck to the bow of the ship. "Save me Festus!"

“The dragon won't save you, princess!" shouted Leo, starting to run after me. "There is no escape from this brave knight!"

"Festus, fry him, please ...!"


End file.
